On March 21, 2011, the Under Secretary of Defense, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) issued Directive-Type Memorandum (DTM) 11-003, “Reliability Analysis, Planning, Tracking, and Reporting”, to enhance reliability in the acquisition process and, in consonance with Secretary of Defense direction, improve the efficiency of the Defense Acquisition System. A copy of the DTM is also available on the DoD Issuances Web site, as well as the Defense Acquisition Portal (DAP) and the DAU Logistics Community of Practice (LOG CoP). The DTM is applicable to Major Defense Acquisition Programs (except Information Systems) and designated special interest programs.

According to the DASD (Systems Engineering), “this policy is the result of the Reliability Senior Steering Group chartered by the USD AT&L last year to make recommendations to strengthen system reliability policy. This DTM places early and continuous emphasis on reliability growth management that is fully integrated across systems engineering, life cycle logistics, and test and evaluation activities.”

The DTM amplifies procedures in DoD Instruction 5000.02, “Operation of the Defense Acquisition System,” to improve reliability analysis, planning, tracking, and reporting, and to institutionalize reliability planning methods and reporting requirements timed to key acquisition activities to monitor reliability growth.

The DTM addresses the processes within the Defense Acquisition System and the role of the Program Manager (PM) in implementing reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM) policy. Among other things, it directs that “program Managers (PMs) shall formulate a comprehensive reliability and maintainability (R&M) program using an appropriate reliability growth strategy to improve R&M performance until R&M requirements are satisfied. The program will consist of engineering activities including: R&M allocations, block diagrams and predictions; failure definitions and scoring criteria; failure mode, effects and criticality analysis; maintainability and built-in test demonstrations; reliability growth testing at the system and subsystem level; and a failure reporting and corrective action system maintained through design, development, production, and sustainment. The R&M program is an integral part of the systems engineering process.”

Encourage you to download a copy and read it when you get the opportunity.