Services Supply Chain in the Department of Defense: Drivers of Acquisition Management Practices in the Army

Abstract

In this research, we reviewed contract files and interviewed subject-matter experts to collect and analyze data regarding the Army's contract and management practices in the acquisition of services. We examined 154 contracts for four specific service types at eight U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command (MICC) organizations. The goal was to answer three research questions: (1) Do the contract characteristics differ for different types of services? (2) Do the types of services being acquired affect the management practices being used? (3) Does the capacity for carrying out acquisition-related work affect the management practices being used? The evaluation of the six contract characteristics revealed that a relationship does exist between service type and three of the contract characteristics contract cost, number of modifications, and contract award strategies. The evaluation of the 13 management practices showed that there exists a relationship between service type and five of the management practices: the use of independent government estimates (IGE), the number of personnel assigned to a contract, the officer serving as the acquisition lead, the use of a quality assurance surveillance plan (QASP), and the use of an IGE for contracts valued over the simplified acquisition threshold. Our research findings also suggested that a relationship does exist between capacity and management practices and that further research is needed to confirm this relationship. Based on the findings of our research, we make several specific recommendations to the U.S. Army MICC for improving the efficiency and effectiveness in the acquisition of these four specific service types.