FROM THE DIRECTOR OF
ACQUISITION CAREER MANAGEMENT RONA LD R. R ICH A R DSON JR .
RANGING IN ACQUISITION
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost. For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
—Anonymous T 110
his centuries-old proverb teaches an important lesson: Each person plays a critical role in success and every minor detail counts.
Tat’s Lesson #1—every Army Acquisition Work-
force professional plays a part in what the Soldier wears, carries or operates.
Many lessons have been learned since the proverb was first seen in the 13th century; since the establishment of the U.S. Army and the United States in 1775 and 1776, respectively; and most recently in the last few decades as we’ve experienced prolonged conflict, a pandemic and faced emerging threats. Te lessons keep coming (some repeating), but it’s important to capture, reflect on and institutionalize those lessons.
LESSON #2: THE QUICK PIVOT For the last 20-plus years, we’ve been focused on minimum sustaining rates to maintain critical industrial capability and ensure the viability of a fragile industrial base. We’ve watched major industry segments move significant manufacturing capac- ity offshore and more recently experienced major supply chain disruptions compounded by the lingering effects of COVID-19.
Ten a quick pivot to the Russia-Ukraine war, where we are now at more than 40 presidential drawdowns—which allow for the speedy delivery of defense articles and services from DOD stocks to foreign countries in response to unforeseen emergencies—to meet immediate battlefield needs, while we also need to quickly replenish our equipment stocks. We’re doing this at a time that we’ve seen a reduction in budget and a larger emphasis on total cost. Where in the previous decades we were in an environment of stretching our programs and trying to keep things moving, we’re now having to surge in response to urgent needs and quickly ramp up production. We’ve had to be responsive and execute a variety of tasks simultaneously.
LESSON #3: IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS 2020 brought the biggest curveball, the COVID-19 pandemic. Te Army, along with the rest of the world, faced resulting supply chain challenges. While our relationship with our industry
We maintained minimum levels of production just to keep facto- ries and suppliers operating. Te discussion was rarely about how quickly you can ramp up production, but rather how few can we buy and still keep the factory, industry segment, etc., viable.
Army AL&T Magazine
Summer 2023
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