Quick follow-on last week’s “New Nov-Dec 2021 Defense Acquisition Magazine” DAU LOG Blog post, wanted to highlight two particular articles of particular interest to our DoD life cycle logistics and product support manager community (as well as their defense industry counterparts), specifically:

• Product Support: The Key to Warfighter Readiness by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Product Support. In this article, she uses this article to provide insights into the department’s strategic vision and vector in this critical area, saying “…product support is critical to effectively and affordably ensuring our weapon systems meet Warfighter needs—and it is receiving intensified congressional scrutiny.” In the process, she lays out the roadmap for where the department is going in terms of policy, process, priorities and enablers, saying “Product support is a key component of weapon system development, implementation, and management. PMs and PSMs are tasked with product support across the weapon system life cycle and will collaborate with many stakeholders to ensure that the Warfighter has the capability and readiness needed for success in any scenario.”
• Ten Powerful Enablers of Functional Area Governance in the Defense Acquisition Workforce that I had the privilege to author, outlines key workforce management lessons learned and insights gained over the last decade and a half. In a nutshell, “workforce professional development is a principal empowerment for desired defense acquisition and sustainment outcomes. Here are 10 key foundational enablers and tenets.” Or as I stated in the article: “the ability to design, develop, field, and sustain reliable, maintainable, available, supportable, and affordable weapon systems is nothing less than a national strategic imperative. This in turn is possible only if members of the Defense Acquisition Workforce possess the needed knowledge, understanding, expertise, leadership, motivation, values, and wisdom. While many of these traits are innate to individuals, workforce professional development—particularly that which is derived from education training, experience, mentoring, and coaching—is also a key enabler for achieving desired defense acquisition and sustainment outcomes.”

Encourage you to take a few moments to check out both of these two new product support and life cycle logistics-focused articles!