Integrated Product Support (IPS) Elements - Overview

As stated in DoD Instruction (DoDI) 5000.91, Product Support Management for the Adaptive Acquisition Framework, product support management includes planning, cost estimating and budgeting, developing, implementing, and managing an effective PSS that addresses all 12 IPS Elements to accomplish materiel and system readiness. This includes systems covered by 10  USC 4324, Life cycle management and product support, plus major systems, sub systems, components, and embedded software.

As captured in DoDI 5000.91, Appendix A of the Product Support Manager (PSM) Guidebook and expanded upon in the IPS Element Guidebook, the 12 IPS Elements are as follows:

• Product Support Management is the development and implementation of product support strategies to ensure supportability is considered throughout the system life cycle through the optimization of the key performance outcomes of reliability, availability, maintainability, and reduction of total ownership costs. The scope of product support management planning and execution includes the enterprise level integration of all twelve integrated product support elements throughout the lifecycle.  
• Design Interface is the integration of the quantitative design characteristics of systems engineering (reliability, maintainability, etc.) with the functional logistics elements (i.e., IPS Elements). Design interface reflects the driving relationship of system design parameters to product support resource requirements. The basic items that need to be considered as part of design interface include the following:
  • Reliability and Maintainability (R&M)
  • Supportability
  • Testability requirements 
  • Support equipment needs in accordance with MIL-STD-1839
  • Diagnostics/prognostics and health management
  • IPS Elements
  • Affordability
  • Configuration Management
  • Safety requirements
  • Environmental and HAZMAT Requirements
  • Human Systems Integration 
  • Corrosion Prevention and Control
  • Anti-Tamper 
  • Habitability
  • Disposal
  • Legal Requirements
• Facilities and Infrastructure are the permanent and semi-permanent real property assets required to support a system, including studies to define types of facilities or facility improvements, location, space needs, environmental and security requirements, and equipment. It includes facilities for training, equipment storage, maintenance, supply storage, ammunition storage, and so forth. .
• IT Systems Continuous Support encompasses the facilities, hardware, software, firmware, documentation, manpower, and personnel needed to operate and support mission critical information technology systems hardware/software systems.  
• Maintenance Planning and Management establishes maintenance concepts and requirements for the life of the system. It includes, but is not limited to, levels of repair, repair times, testability requirements, support equipment needs, manpower skills, facilities, Interservice, organic and contractor mix of repair responsibility, site activation, etc. This element has a great impact on the planning, development, and acquisition of other logistics support elements.
• Manpower and Personnel involves the identification and acquisition of personnel (military & civilian) with the skills and grades required to operate, maintain, and support systems over their lifetime. Early identification is essential. If the needed manpower is an additive requirement to existing manpower levels of an organization, a formalized process of identification and justification must be made to higher authority. Add to this the necessity to train these persons, new and existing, in their respective functions on the new system, and the seriousness of any delays in the accomplishment of this element becomes apparent. In the case of military requirements, manpower needs can, and in many cases do, ripple all the way back to recruiting quotas.
• Packaging, Handling, Storage, and Transportation (PHS&T) is the combination of resources, processes, procedures, design, considerations, and methods to ensure that all system, equipment, and support items are preserved, packaged, handled, and transported properly, including environmental considerations, equipment preservation for the short and long storage, and transportability.
• Supply Support consists of all management actions, procedures, and techniques necessary to determine requirements to acquire, catalog, receive, store, transfer, issue and dispose of spares, repair parts, and supplies. In layman terms, this means having the right spares, repair parts, and supplies available, in the right quantities, at the right place, at the right time, at the right price. The process includes provisioning for initial support, as well as acquiring, distributing, and replenishing inventories. 
• Support Equipment is made up of all equipment (mobile or fixed) required to support the operation and maintenance of a system. This includes ground handling and maintenance equipment, tools, metrology and calibration equipment, and manual and Automatic Test Equipment (ATE). During the acquisition of systems, program managers are expected to decrease the proliferation of support equipment into the inventory by minimizing the development of new support equipment and giving more attention to the use of existing government or commercial equipment.
• Sustaining Engineering spans those technical tasks (engineering and logistics investigations and analyses) to ensure continued operation and maintenance of a system with managed (i.e., known) risk. Sustaining Engineering involves the identification, review, assessment, and resolution of deficiencies throughout a system's life cycle. Sustaining Engineering both returns a system to its baselined configuration and capability, and identifies opportunities for performance and capability enhancement. It includes the measurement, identification and verification of system technical and supportability deficiencies, associated root cause analyses, evaluation of the potential for deficiency correction and the development of a range of corrective action options.
• Technical Data Management  consists of recorded information of scientific or technical nature, regardless of form or character (such as equipment Technical Manuals (TMs) and engineering drawings), engineering data, specifications, standards and Data Item Descriptions (DIDs). Technical Manuals, including Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs) and engineering models or drawings, are the most expensive and probably the most important data acquisitions made in support of a system.  TMs and IETMs provide the instructions for operation and maintenance of a system.
• Training and Training Support consists of the policy, processes, procedures, techniques, training devices, and equipment used to train civilian and military personnel to acquire, operate and support a system. This includes individual and crew training, new equipment training, initial, formal, and on-the-job training.