Analysis of the 2021 Office of Federal Procurement Policy Definition of Procurement Acquisition Lead Time

Abstract

In January 2021, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) issued a memorandum defining procurement acquisition lead time (PALT) as “the time between the date on which a federal department or agency issues an initial solicitation for a contract or order and the date of the award of the contract or order.” While this definition supports identifying and addressing causes of procurement delays and meets the intent of the direction in Section 886 of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the extent of alignment between this definition and Air Force contracting execution is unclear. This research explores the alignment between the January 2021 PALT definition and Air Force contracting execution from October 1, 2015, to December 31, 2021. By applying qualitative content, policy, and Air Force internal metrics analyses, the findings indicate that the current Office of Federal Procurement Policy’s (OFPP) definition of PALT does not measure the majority of policies issued to reduce lead times and that the current metrics tracked by the Air Force do not cover the impact of those policies. This research recommends using a metric that captures pre-solicitation lead time to give the Air Force valuable insight into procurement delays and achieved efficiencies and include more process-based metrics to understand and identify procurement delays.