Back in March, I shared information on the new DoD Operating & Support (O&S) Cost Management Guidebook issued by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics & Materiel Readiness (L&MR). For those who have read through this guide, you recognize what an important interdisciplinary resource it is for the life cycle logistics, cost estimating, program management, and systems engineering communities.

Among the many key areas it touches on (including excellent and detailed information on O&S Will Cost, O&S Should Cost, Affordability, Product Support Planning, Designing for Supportability, and linkages to Reliability, Availability and Maintainability), one in particular caught my eye and is one you probably will want to take a look at. I’m specifically referring to is Section 4.2.1.4.3 (Mapping the Integrated Product Support (IPS) Elements to the O&S Cost Elements), along with more detailed information in Appendix B (Mapping among IPS Elements, O&S Cost Categories, and Funding Appropriations).

As you craft your product support strategies, identify your funding requirements, conduct your product support business case analyses (BCA), update your Life Cycle Sustainment Plans (LCSP), prepare for an Independent Logistics Assessment (ILA), or simply find yourself wondering how the Cost Analysis & Performance Evaluation (CAPE) O&S Cost categories align to both funding appropriations and IPS Elements, encourage you to take another look at this guidebook.