SD-2 Dod Acquisitions Buying Commercial Items And Nondevelopmental ItemsThis document offers guidance on acquisitions involving all types of commercial and nondevelopmental items: systems, subsystems, assemblies, parts, and items of supply. Commercial services are also addressed.This document does not present a “cookbook” approach to the acquisition of commercial and nondevelopmental items; such an approach could not accommodate the vast array of potential applications. It does offer lessons learned and things to consider when participating on an integrated product team.

Pages 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 - 31 - 32 - 33 - 34 - 35 - 36 - 37 - 38 - 39 - 40 - 41 - 42 - 43 - 44 - 45 - 46 - 47 - 48 - 49 - 50 - 51 - 52 - 53 - 54 - 55 - 56 - 57 - 58 - 59 - 60 - 61 - 62 - 63 - 64

requirements accurately reflect user needs. Users also can help prioritize requirements and identify and resolve potential suitability issues.

•  Perform continuous commercial item market research. Market research includes system obsolescence profiling to plan for the continued support or replacement of soon-to-be obsolete products.

•  Project the manufacturer's product support period and inventories.

•  Integrate market research results with field data, including information technology, obso- lescence projections, system supportability, performance requirements, reliability, maintain- ability, availability, and logistics.

•  Ensure that product obsolescence information is part of the overall system life-cycle plan- ning.

•  Plan and provide for testing. Commercial products change rapidly and may have undis- closed design changes. In addition, products being considered for system technology refreshment need to be tested within a system context to verify functionality.Testing is necessary to ensure that engineering changes do not have a negative effect on system per- formance.

•  Use product selection factors that include product maturity; manufacturer production and support history, stability, and flexibility; market share; and upward/downward compatibili- ty. These need to be weighted as to their relative importance and influence on DMSMS risks.

•  Continually analyze the product to project and prioritize product obsolescence issues; to refine budget estimates; to identify emergent or unplanned commercial item support issues due to changing business or market conditions such as bankruptcies, mergers, and product line changes; and to determine alternatives to avoid obsolescence situations.

•  Tailor risk analyses to take into account such factors as market conditions, technology longevity and supportability, optimum technology refresh cycles, numbers of system con- figurations, and risk mitigation strategies.

The risk mitigation strategies should be identified in the integrated program plan, a "living" document that is continuously updated to address overall strategic planning, including program decisions and changes, and to project the system's evolution.The plan also should address com- mercial item support options such as end-of-life buys, extended warranties, license extensions, technology refreshment, third-party maintenance, and data rights.

For more information, see Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages:A Guide- book of Best Practices and Tools for Implementing a DMSMS Management Program, SD-22, published by the Defense Standardization Program Office in September 2009.

Source:  https://assist.dla.mil  --  Downloaded: 

42                                 Check  the  source  to  verify  that  this  is  the  current  version  before  use.