Improving Reliability

The Pentagon last week issued a "directive-type memorandum" that seeks "to immediately enhance reliability in the acquisition process and . . . improve the efficiency of the Defense acquisition system." The memo "is designed to improve reliability analysis, planning, tracking, and reporting" and "[i]nstitutionalizes reliability planning methods and reporting requirements timed to key acquisition activities to monitor reliability growth."

The March 21 memo, signed by Frank Kendall from the Defense Department's acquisition shop and directed to the senior DOD leadership, establishes the following procedures:

1. Program Managers (PMs) shall formulate a comprehensive reliability and maintainability (R&M) program using an appropriate reliability growth strategy to improve R&M performance until R&M requirements are satisfied. The program will consist of engineering activities including: R&M allocations, block diagrams and predictions; failure definitions and scoring criteria; failure mode, effects and criticality analysis; maintainability and built-in test demonstrations; reliability growth testing at the system and subsystem level; and a failure reporting and corrective action system maintained through design, development, production, and sustainment. The R&M program is an integral part of the systems engineering process.

2. The lead DoD Component and the PM, or equivalent, shall prepare a preliminary Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Cost Rationale Report in accordance with Reference (c) in support of the Milestone (MS) A decision. This report provides a quantitative basis for reliability requirements and improves cost estimates and program planning. The report shall be attached to the Systems Engineering Plan (SEP) at MS A and updated in support of MS B and C.

3. The Technology Development Strategy preceding MS A and the Acquisition Strategy preceding MS B and C shall specify how the sustainment characteristics of the materiel solution resulting from the analysis of alternatives and the Capability Development Document sustainment key performance parameter thresholds have been translated into R&M design requirements and contract specifications. The strategies shall also include the tasks and processes to be stated in the request for proposal that the contractor will be required to employ to demonstrate the achievement of reliability design requirements. The Test and Evaluation Strategy and the Test and Evaluation Master Plan (TEMP) shall specify how reliability will be tested and evaluated during the associated acquisition phase.

4. Reliability Growth Curves (RGC) shall reflect the reliability growth strategy and be employed to plan, illustrate, and report reliability growth. A RGC shall be included in the SEP at MS A, and updated in the TEMP beginning at MS B. RGC will be stated in a series of intermediate goals and tracked through fully integrated, system-level test and evaluation events until the reliability threshold is achieved. If a single curve is not adequate to describe overall system reliability, curves will be provided for critical subsystems with rationale for their selection.

5. PMs and operational test agencies shall assess the reliability growth required for the system to achieve its reliability threshold during initial operational test and evaluation and report the results of that assessment to the Milestone Decision Authority at MS C.

6. Reliability growth shall be monitored and reported throughout the acquisition process. PMs shall report the status of reliability objectives and/or thresholds as part of the formal design review process, during Program Support Reviews, and during systems engineering technical reviews. RGC shall be employed to report reliability growth status at Defense Acquisition Executive System reviews.