This is just an Excerpt from a larger document, click here to view the entire document.Introduction
The Department of Defense (DoD) has been pursuing Acquisition Reform (AR) for over 25 years, so it is therefore not a new concept. However,with the release of what is now simply called "The Perry Memo", AR has taken on a whole new meaning. "The Perry Memo" is the June 1994 four-page memorandum on "Specifications & Standards - A New Way of Doing Business" signed by Secretary of Defense William J. Perry [1]. One of the main thrusts of this memo was changing the emphasis on an acquisition process that relied heavily on militarystandards and specifications and systems built uniquely for the defense customer, to one that decreases reliance, "to the maximum extent practicable", on such standards and specifications. Further, the thrust is now on developing systems based on performance and commercial based specifications and standards with a concerted effort to incorporate commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and non-developmental item (NDI) equipments into systems acquisition programs.
The objective of this START sheet is to provide a brief overview on where recent changes in AR policy are affecting Reliability and Maintainability (R&M) and to provide the reader with additional references that should enable tracking future changes and impacts. More specifically, the following areas will be discussed:
