Product Support Manager (PSM)

Requirement

"The Secretary of Defense shall require that each major weapon system be supported by a product support manager…" to "maximize value to the Department of Defense by providing the best possible product support outcomes at the lowest operations and support cost." -- Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Section 805

On October 7, 2009, House-Senate Conference Committee Agreement was reached on the FY2010 NDAA, and the next day, the House approved the FY2010 Defense Authorization Conference Report. It was signed into law (PL 111-84) by the President on October 28, 2009. Amended several times in the next several years, on January 3, 2013, President Obama signed into law the NDAA of 2013 (PL 112-239). Section 823 of the FY2013 NDAA, entitled Codification and Amendment Relating to Life-Cycle Management and Product Support Requirements, officially repealed Section 805 of the NDAA for FY2010 (PL 111-84) and amended Chapter 137 of 10 USC (as amended by section 331) to add the following new section: 10 USC 2337:  Life-cycle management and product support. This codifies in statute the product support requirements governing the PSM. As of January 1, 2022, this section was renumbered to 10 USC 4324.

Statutory Responsibilities

10 USC 4324 paragraph c(1) that states "the Secretary of Defense shall require that each covered system be supported by a product support manager in accordance with this subsection".

Paragraph c(2) lists nine statutory responsibilities of the PSM, stating that "a product support manager for a covered system shall:

1. develop, update, and implement a life cycle sustainment plan described in subsection (b);
2. ensure the life cycle sustainment plan is informed by appropriate predictive analysis and modeling tools that can improve material availability and reliability, increase operational availability rates, and reduce operation and sustainment costs;
3. conduct appropriate cost analyses to validate the product support strategy and life cycle sustainment plan, including cost-benefit analyses as outlined in Office of Management and Budget Circular A–94;
4. ensure achievement of desired product support outcomes through development and implementation of appropriate product support arrangements;
5. adjust performance requirements and resource allocations across product support integrators and product support providers as necessary to optimize implementation of the product support strategy;
6. periodically review product support arrangements between the product support integrators and product support providers to ensure the arrangements are consistent with the overall product support strategy;
7. prior to each change in the product support strategy or every five years, whichever occurs first, revalidate any business-case analysis performed in support of the product support strategy;
8. ensure that the product support strategy maximizes small business participation at the appropriate tiers; and
9. ensure that product support arrangements for the covered system describe how such arrangements will ensure efficient procurement, management, and allocation of Government-owned parts inventories in order to prevent unnecessary procurements of such parts."

The following additional responsibility was added to statute by PL113-66 (FY2014 NDAA Sec 803):

     10. identify obsolete electronic parts included in specifications for an acquision program and approve suitable replacements for such electronic parts.

Policy

DoD policy implementing 10 USC 2337 (now 10 USC 4324) was originally contained in Directive-Type Memorandum (DTM) 10-015, Requirements for Life Cycle Management and Product Support, initially issued October 7, 2010, with several subsequent extensions (Note: the issuance of the Interim DoDI 5000.02 in November 2013 officially rescinded DTM 10-015). Currently, PSM policy requirements reside primarily in DoD Instruction (DoDI) 5000.91, Product Support Mananagement for the Adaptive Acquisition Framework and clearly aligns with the statute. The major requirements from 5000.91 Sections 4.1.d and e are as follows:  

• The PM is the single point of accountability for DoD systems support and total life cycle systems management for all programs; however, the PSM is responsible to the PM for life cycle product support. The PSM supports the PM in the development of a performance-based life cycle product support strategy (PSS) required for all covered systems in the Defense Acquisition System (DAS) as codified in DoD Directive (DoDD) 5000.01 and DoDI 5000.02, Operation of the Adaptive Acquisition Framework.
• PSMs will:
  • Be a part of the life cycle logistics functional workforce, meet all LCL certification and training requirements, and be a Military Service member or DoD civilian employee
  • Report to and provide system product support subject matter expertise to the PM for the development, implementation, and execution of the system’s PSS
  • Perform the functions set forth in Section 2337(c)(2) of 10 USC (now 10 USC 4324) for covered systems
  • Develop, update, and implement a detailed Life Cycle Sustainment Plan (LCSP)
  • Conduct life cycle logistics management and product support activities for the Adaptive Acquisition Framework (AAF) pathways
  • Collaborate with the chief engineer and systems engineers to provide sufficient program supportability and cost data and analysis to the PM, Component Acquisition Executive (CAE), and the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD(A&S)) to enable effective operation, management, and tracking of reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) and operating and support (O&S) costs.

The Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Product Support, DASD(PS), website contains a wide-range of PSM-related references, resources, policies, guidance, tools, training, recognition, and information on DoD PSM Workshops. 

The Mar-Apr 2012 Defense AT&L Magazine was dedicated to the topic of Product Support and role of the PSM.