The Army Materiel Requirements Documents: Qualitative Analysis of Efficiency and Effectiveness

Abstract

The U.S. Army must maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of the documents that facilitate successful materiel requirements generation for the warfighter. Throughout the last decade, incremental modifications to policies and procedures have resulted in changes to the mandatory materiel requirements documents. These incessant changes have forced continuous revisions to the requirements generation process and materiel requirements documents over the last decade. Consequently, many factors are constraining the future of the Army's requirements generation process as the Global War on Terrorism comes to a close. This project examines the benefits and shortfalls of past and present materiel requirements documents. It examines these requirements documents based on their efficiency and effectiveness for key stakeholders. The project also weighs these documents against current initiatives for best practices in the Department of Defense. Subsequently, a comparative analysis is performed on requirements documents for three ground vehicles that have been either produced or projected for production. Recommendations for changes to future requirements documents are presented.