The Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics & Materiel Readiness (L&MR) has signed out two important new guidebooks with direct benefits and immediate implications for the DoD Life Cycle Logistics community in general, as well as new Product Support Managers (PSM) in particular. The two guidebooks, both dated April 2011, are the Product Support Manager (PSM) Guidebook and the Product Support Business Case Analysis (BCA) Guidebook.

This new Product Support Manager (PSM) Guidebook develops the Product Support Business Model (PSBM) recommended in the November 2009 Weapon System Acquisition Reform: Product Support Assessment (WSAR-PSA) and provides guidance to the Program Manager/ Product Support Manager on how to develop and execute a product support strategy. It supports (USD AT&L) Dr Carter’s November 2010 memorandum on “Better Buying Power” by addressing the themes of increased competition, long-term affordability and controlling cost growth, and innovation in industry. This guidebook is written for the PSM and provides an easy reference addressing key requirements for managing product support across the entire life cycle of a weapon system. This PSM guidebook will serve as an operating guide to assist the PSM and the Acquisition Community with the implementation of next-generation product support strategies. This April 2011 Product Support Manager (PSM) Guidebook will supersede the highly successful and well-used Performance Based Logistics: A Program Manager’s Product Support Guide, first published in March 2005, and which has been commonly referred to as ‘the PBL Guide.”

Additionally, the WSAR-PSA report contained eight integrated recommendations to improve life cycle product support. One of the eight recommendations included clarifying and codifying policies and procedures pertaining to the use of analytical tools, including business case analysis (BCA) in the life cycle product support decision making process.  The new Product Support Business Case Analysis (BCA) Guidebook is a living document that will continue to be updated with new best practices and methodologies, and provides overall guidance for conducting a product support BCA. It is intended to be used in conjunction with other analytical tools and guidance, and can be further tailored for specific types of BCAs.

Encourage you to check them both out, link to these sites, and download the PDF versions of each if you’d like to have a file copy of each. Both can be accessed from our new Product Support Policy, Guidance and Tools site on the DAU Logistics Community of Practice (LOG CoP).

Longer-term, also be aware that these two guidebooks will form the foundation of a new LOG 340 Life Cycle Product Support course which will replace the existing LOG 236 PBL course effective 1 October 2011. Also be aware our plan in the coming months is also to hyperlink and host both of these guidebooks in a web-enabled format similar to that of the Defense Acquisition Guidebook (DAG).