If you had not already seen it, let me take a moment to bring to your attention the new DoD Instruction 5134.16 entitled “Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Engineering (DASD(SE))” which was issued by the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) on August 19, 2011.

I believe we in the life cycle logistics community should not only take note of this new DoD instruction, but should be particularly enthusiastic about its emphasis on cross-functional, interdisciplinary integration in general, and shared systems engineering-life cycle logistics care-about areas (such as Life Cycle Management (LCM), Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM), reliability growth, Data Management (DM), Configuration Management (CM), Human Systems Integration (HSI), affordability, sustainability, rigorous analytics, performance metrics establishment and performance tracking, among others) in particular. Not only are life cycle management, affordability, reliability, availability, and maintainability, metrics, and performance tracking all foundational life cycle logistics tenets, but Data Management, Configuration Management, and RAM are three of the seven primary life cycle logistics competencies identified in the 2008 DoD Logistics Human Capital Strategy. In addition to the specific design interface and sustaining engineering elements, most of these are also embedded into the Integrated Product Support (IPS) elements identified in Appendix A of the DoD Product Support Manager (PSM) Guidebook.

This again reiterates why the life cycle logistics community has established SYS 101 Systems Planning, Research
Development, and Engineering (SPRDE) Fundamentals as a Level I Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) certification requirement effective 1 Oct 11, and why our LOG 103 Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM), LOG 204 Configuration Management, and CLL008 Designing for Supportability in DoD Systems continuous learning module (plus future CLL012 Supportability Analysis continuous learning module, and LOG 211 Supportability Analysis and LOG 215 Technical Data/Product Data Management courses) are all collaboratively developed and targeted toward workforce members from both functional communities.

None of this is by accident. Designing for supportability, long-term product support, and true life cycle management cannot be done in functional stovepipes. It is truly a team effort. The inextricable linkage, interface, and collaboration between the life cycle logistics and systems engineering communities continues to flourish -- and that is indeed excellent news for the defense acquisition workforce, American taxpayers, and ultimately our warfighters.