DEFENSE STANDARDIZATION PROGRAM
This case study describes how the Army Materiel

Command (AMC) consolidated the acquisition of

standards-related information into a single contract

managed by a single office. Not only are quality,

access, and oversight greatly improved, but the

cost savings are substantial—more than $1 million

per year, or about a third lower than the costs under

the old business model.
2005 through 2007,AMC spent about $3.4 million

a year, or a total of about $10.2 million, to purchase

standards and standards-related information.

Problem

AMC is a Lean Six Sigma organization that prides

itself on periodically reviewing its business practices

to identify and address defects.A review, by the

AMC command librarian, of the practices used to

Background

AMC develops and acquires the materiel needed by

warfighters.That materiel ranges from meals ready

to eat, uniforms, ammunition, and communications

systems, to complex, sophisticated weapon systems.

AMC also is responsible for sustainment of the

materiel, including maintaining and distributing

spare parts. In short,AMC’s responsibilities span the

entire materiel life cycle from innovative idea to

factory to foxhole.

To fully optimize its development, acquisition, and

sustainment missions, and thus ensure readiness

throughout each system’s life cycle (which can be

30 years or more),AMC maximizes its use of military and other government standards, as well as

commercial standards.To put it another way,AMC

capitalizes on the wealth of knowledge from all

communities—sister military services and other

government agencies, foreign partners, industry, and

academia—to find the right solutions for the tough

acquisition and sustainment issues that affect the

Army’s warfighting capability.

AMC’s libraries, life-cycle management commands (LCMCs), and other units purchase standards-related information through a commercial

information provider. Over the 3-year period from

Defense Standardization Program Case Study

Consolidated Acquisition of Standards-Related

Information

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obtain standards-related information revealed two

key defects:

■ Multiple AMC units, including the 12 AMC

libraries and various AMC engineering shops,

had established their own contracts with a commercial information provider. Because these

units operated independently, they had no way

to know whether the information they needed

had already been purchased by another AMC

unit.

■ AMC units were paying the commercial

provider for government-owned information—

including AMC-owned information such as

military standards and specifications, Logistics

Support Activity (LOGSA) information, and so

on—that is available elsewhere at no cost.

These practices not only were expensive, due to

duplicative purchases and purchases of information

already available at no cost, but were inefficient. For

example, no overall coordination existed among the

various contracting offices and the LCMCs. Moreover, because of the individual contracts, knowledge

management professionals employed by AMC’s

libraries had no influence or oversight of the quality

of the standards-related information being obtained.

Approach

Because the business model of obtaining standardsrelated information independently was entrenched

in the AMC culture, the command librarian realized

that he would need to develop a well-documented

and comprehensive analysis of the current practices

before he could propose and implement a solution

to address the defects. In other words, stakeholders

would need to be convinced that a new business

model would be beneficial.

To develop the case for a new business model, the

command librarian assembled a team of knowledge

management professionals; users of standards-related

information, including scientists, engineers, and specialists in such fields as weapon development, manufacturing, and logistics; information technology

(IT) specialists; and acquisition professionals.

Develop the Business Case

The team began by surveying AMC library representatives and standards users within the LCMCs

and other AMC units.The team found that multiple

searches for the same information are counted separately by the commercial information provider and

are billed accordingly, leading to widespread inefficiencies and redundancies.The team also found that

it was a common practice to use the commercial

information provider to retrieve government standards and specifications and to allow the provider to

bill AMC for this service.

Considering its findings, the team designed a

combined subscription/pay-on-demand business

model.The new model uses information management principles to centrally manage an information

database that supports a buy-once but use-often

approach to standards and specifications.

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The AMC team’s solution has three critical components:

■ Consolidate all standards-related information requirements—specifically, all command standards and specification subscription services—into a single competitive

contract managed by a single contract office. Working

closely with AMC acquisition specialists, the

team developed a solicitation that, among other

things,

● required standards-related products to be

accessible to AMC personnel through a central point within the AMC IT architecture

and

● guaranteed round-the-clock online services

with a system availability rate of not lower

than 98 percent.

Using a competitive solicitation in the knowledge management field, which has experienced

very little competition in the past, had the

desired effect.AMC is convinced that the winning offeror made a special effort to ensure its

success in the competition.

■ Make standards-related information—both government and commercial—accessible to the entire AMC

enterprise through a central, web-based portal. The

team explored the feasibility of a portal with IT

specialists both within the AMC and with representatives from Army Knowledge Online

(AKO), the Army’s integrated enterprise portal.

AKO is operated and maintained by the Army

Chief Information Office (CIO), which is

responsible for communications, computers, and

IT.The CIO assisted the AMC librarians with

the development of the web-based central portal

concept.The winning offeror in the competitive

solicitation also assisted with the portal’s development. The standards portal has been developed on the AKO website and is available on

the AMC portal. In addition, the AMC team

provided for user support by knowledge management professionals.The portal, managed at

the Redstone Scientific Information Center, has

already become the central access point for standards-related information across AMC.

■ Eliminate the practice of paying for government standards. The team recognized that eliminating the

widespread practice of paying the commercial

information provider to retrieve governmentowned information would require a command

directive.Although the merits of eliminating this

unnecessary expense were self-evident, it was

nevertheless a challenge to draft a compelling

command directive and to get it through the

reviewing chain of command.The reviews were

extensive and thorough, but persistence and

well-reasoned documentation made the strength

of the case irrefutable.The AMC commanding

general signed the directive in December 2007.

The AMC team conducted a detailed, comprehensive cost-benefit analysis comparing the old

model with the new one.The team was careful to

recognize areas, such as administration, for which it

was difficult to estimate costs and, accordingly, used

conservative estimates.The team also identified

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assumptions crucial to the successful implementation

of the new model (notably, the requirement for a

command directive prohibiting purchases of government-owned information) and recognized constraints (such as pushback from field units concerned

about their continued access to the needed information) that would need to be overcome. In short, the

team’s assessment was realistic and evenhanded.As a

result, the cost-benefit analysis was a persuasive tool

for convincing stakeholders that implementing the

new business model would be highly beneficial both

to them and to AMC as a whole.

The new model was approved up to the AMC

executive deputy, who signed for the AMC commanding general. Once approved, the new model

was made an AMC budget summit item and was

subsequently approved by the subordinate commanders.

Obtain Resources

To implement the new business model, the AMC

team needed resources.Although resistance was stiff,

the team was able to convince AMC units to relinquish the funds they had been using to obtain their

own contractual access to the commercial information source.The team—with the help of resource

managers at the subordinate commands, who recognized the compelling business case—overcame the

resistance by pointing out the cost savings, the more

efficient processes, and the importance of enterprise-wide access to standards and standards-related

information (which is integral to the daily operation of the materiel enterprise), as well as the command-level support for the new model.The team

used the relinquished funds to establish the single

competitive contract to provide centralized AMCwide access to standards-related information.

The AKO and AMC CIO assisted with the development of the portal. In addition, the Army CIO

was willing to devote two full-time equivalents

from the Headquarters AMC library to provide

centralized management and user support. In addition to that support, the AMC team provided for

extensive online user training on access, retrieval,

and management processes related to standards.

Obtain Stakeholder Buy-In

Because of the significant differences between the

old model and the new one, the AMC team knew

that resistance and pushback would be unavoidable.

To obtain buy-in, the team had to refute the misinformation circulating in the user community. For

example, some argued that a competitive procurement was pointless, because only one comprehensive source of standards-related information existed;

in other words, the marketplace for standards-related

information contained few if any competitors.The

team pointed out that the AMC libraries, in particular, the Redstone Scientific Information Center,

had accounts with several vendors. Other users

maintained that historical U.S. military standards

and specifications are not available except through

commercial organizations; the team pointed out

that ASSIST has most of the historical standards

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and specifications, although many are in hard-copy

format.

The team also had to convince stakeholders that

the purpose of switching to a central web-based

portal was not to eliminate access to standardsrelated information but to make retrieval of that

information simpler and less expensive.The team

explained that the SharePoint portals (at Headquarters AMC and each subordinate command) would

be integrated, allowing access to standards and specifications through AKO,AMC’s primary portal to

the commercial information provider.The team has

distributed detailed guidance on how to access

AKO through official AMC channels, and the AMC

command librarian spent the first few months personally contacting people at the subordinate commands and known users to ascertain that they

understood the guidance.

In addition, the LCMCs were concerned that

changing the way standards-related information is

retrieved would affect AMC production in vital

areas of life-cycle management. Field units were

concerned that the existing way of doing business

with the leading standards-related information

repositories was going to be eliminated by the proposed consolidated approach. It was necessary to

convince them that the subscriptions with these

repositories would still be in place and the information needed would remain available.

Through persistence, the team was able to make

the case that searches for and retrieval of standardsrelated information would continue much as before.

Users would be able to retrieve information at will,

but with the added advantage of a professional

researcher available when needed. Specifically, the

AMC command librarian will step in upon request,

for example, by a user who has a gap (usually a bad

citation) or simply needs training. In addition, the

librarian will send e-mails and make telephone calls

to make sure the end users are having no problems.

The program also has points of contact for troubleshooting and solving access problems.The program is now serving more than 20,000 engineers

and scientists with one full-time librarian.

The team also pointed out that the significant

reduction in cost and the improved management of

government-owned intellectual property would

increase the stability, security, access to, and use of

standards-related information across the AMC

enterprise.

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Benefits

The use of true competition and a one-subscription

business model has had a sweeping effect on the

quality of and access to standards-related information and has improved oversight:

■ Competition among offerors resulted in higher

quality technical and cost proposals.

■ Military standards are available at no cost.

■ Desktop access and single-point portal access,

combined with a common database, make it

easy for users to obtain standards and specifications.

■ Site license restrictions on access to standardsrelated information are removed, enabling users,

regardless of their location, to have direct access

to the information.

■ Program management by experienced librarians

and knowledge management professionals

ensures user support in areas of research, training, and vendor interface.This, in turn, frees

higher-cost scientific and engineering personnel

to engage more fully in research and development and in life-cycle management.

■ Professional information and budget management personnel have an overview of the acquisition and utility of standards-related information,

which should lead to the development of best

practices.

■ Management of funds is centralized, greatly

improving oversight of funds expended.

Not only are quality, access, and oversight greatly

improved, but the cost savings and cost avoidance

are substantial—more than $3.5 million per year.

The estimated cost savings alone total more than

$1 million per year and are due to a small reduction

in contract costs plus a large reduction in contract

management costs, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Cost Savings Realized with New Business Model

Business model Contract cost

Contract

management cost Total

Old:

35 contracts

25 separate contract offices

1/3 person-year per office

$2,640,000 $758,000 $3,398,000

New:

1 contract

1 contract office

1 person-year

$2,260,000 $91,000 $2,371,000

Savings $1,027,000
In addition to cutting its costs,AMC has avoided

the costs of research time. In other words, the availability of an online “one-stop-shopping” source of

standards-related information has substantially

reduced the users’ need for the services of scientists

and engineers.The AMC librarian estimated that if

only half of AMC’s 5,000 scientists and engineers

saved as few as 10 hours per year doing searches, the

cost avoidance would approach $2.5 million per

year (10 hours ✕ 2,500 employees ✕ $50 per hour).

Future Efforts

AMC anticipates that the cost savings and cost

avoidance will continue.The portal should prove

itself to be even more efficient and effective in

retrieving standards-related information as the users

become increasingly aware of it and more comfortable with its use.

AMC also anticipates further savings when all

LOGSA products are acquired through the portal.

AMC plans a detailed analysis to identify the

LOGSA products currently being purchased

through other commercial vendors.

Because of AMC’s success in developing an

enterprise approach to the procurement of industry

standards and specifications, other scientific and

technical organizations—notably, the U.S.Army

Corps of Engineers, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and NASA—have expressed an interest in

emulating the AMC program or piggybacking their

standards-related information retrieval onto the

AMC contract.

Lessons Learned

The following are the key lessons learned from the

AMC effort:

■ Understand the problem. It was critical that

enough research be done and enough information gathered to be able to present a case for the

consolidation of standards-related information

retrieval.

■ Assemble the necessary expertise to develop the new

business model. Pulling together the various

aspects of the new model required the expertise

of knowledge management professionals, users

of standards-related information, IT specialists,

and acquisition professionals.

■ Develop a solution and build a coherent case for its

implementation.The normal resistance to change

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must be overcome. Doing so requires clearly

demonstrating the solution’s merits, in terms of

both cost and efficiency. In addition, each stakeholder’s issues must be explicitly addressed.

■ Identify and remove the defect. Borrowing from the

Lean Six Sigma approach, it is important to recognize the significant flaws in the processes and

endeavor to take the steps necessary to correct

them. In this case, nothing less than a command

directive was necessary to break established

habits.

■ Reeducate the community. Some members of the

AMC user community held some significant

erroneous beliefs.The team had to correct those

misconceptions before it could present an alternative to their way of doing business.

■ Be realistic when assessing the present practices and

the proposed future ones. An evenhanded, realistic

stance was more convincing and productive than

trying to maximize the existing problems or

minimizing the issues in implementing a change.

In the cost-benefit analysis, the team clearly

identified the assumptions as well as the constraints. In order to obtain stakeholder buy-in,

the case had to be straightforward and realistic.

■ Solicit stakeholder support. Whenever proposing

new business practices, it is necessary to convince the stakeholders of the benefits to them

and to their budgets.

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DEFENSE STANDARDIZATION PROGRAM OFFICE

8725 John J. Kingman Road, Stop 5100

Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6220

(703) 767-6888

dsp.dla.mil