Heading into the Clubhouse Turn (pardon the horseracing parlance) on our “Tour of Product Support, Element by Element”, today’s post marks the fifth in an ongoing 12-part series examining each of the twelve Integrated Product Support (IPS) Elements. To date, we’ve examined four elements (Product Support Management (not to be confused with the key leadership position of Product Support Manager), Design Interface, Maintenance Planning & Management and Supply Support. Today we’ll take a look at the occasionally underrated, but just as vital area of Packaging, Handling, Storage and Transportation (PHS&T). Complementing supply support, key activities include, but are by no means limited to:

• Short and long term preservation
• Packaging requirements determination
• Containerization requirements determination
• Shelf life requirements determination
• Handling requirements determination
• Transportation requirements determination
• Environmental control requirements determination
• Physical shock control requirements determination
• Static shock control requirements determination
• Security classification requirements determination
• Container Reutilization
• Marking

According to Appendix A of the DoD Product Support Manager (PSM) Guidebook, the objective of the PHS&T IPS element is to “…identify, plan, resource, and acquire PHST requirements to maximize availability and usability of the materiel to include support items whenever they are needed for training or mission.” The guidebook goes on to describe PHS&T as the element which “…Is the combination of resources, processes, procedures, design, considerations, and methods to ensure that all system, equipment, and support items are preserved, packaged, handled, and transported properly, including environmental considerations, equipment preservation for the short and long storage, and transportability. Some items require special environmentally controlled, shock isolated containers for transport to and from repair and storage facilities via all modes of transportation (road, rail, air, and sea).”

Longtime life cycle logistics practitioners recognize the critical nature of the PHS&T element both prior to and in the years since the issuance of the seminal November 2009 DoD Weapon System Acquisition Reform: Product Support Assessment report. As I’ve shared in earlier blogs in this series, not only the did the integrated nature of the element help hasten the transition from Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) to Integrated Product Support (IPS), it also highlighted the interconnected nature of PHS&T as an integral part of supply chain management and enabler of complex interdependent supply networks. It also reflected a shift in thinking from stock, store, and issue of supplies to a wider life-cycle management and product support focus outlined in 10 U.S.C. 2337. Bottom line: PHS&T, like the other IPS Elements, is a key enabler of affordable readiness!

As I’ve also previously indicated, the operative word for each of the twelve elements (and PHS&T is certainly also another important example) of the word “integrated”, something you’ll see reiterated throughout this blog series. Decisions made in or for one element routinely have major – and occasionally unintentional -- implications across each of the others. As I’d also shared previously, this critically important product support element transcends functional communities. Each directly impacts each of the other eleven elements, and in so doing, each element aligns, integrates, and addresses key “ilities” including reliability, availability, maintainability, supportability, affordability, sustainability, suitability, habitability, and transportability, among others. As I also previously shared, the term “ilities” is so ubiquitous and so pervasive in the acquisition arena that it actually has its own definition in the DAU Glossary!

Finally, as we make each stop on this extended IPS Element tour, it’s worth remembering that your OSD and DAU life cycle logistics colleagues offer a myriad of references, resources, training and tools to assist you in better understanding the nuances of these elements, (and the integrated nature of product support) including but by no means limited to:

• DoD Product Support Manager (PSM) Guidebook (Appendix A)
• DAU Integrated Product Support Element Guidebook
• Defense Acquisition Guidebook (DAG), Chapter 4 (Life Cycle Sustainment)
• DoD Logistics Assessment Guidebook
• Logistics Community of Practice (LOG CoP) IPS Element Section
• DAU Integrated Product Support Implementation Roadmap Tool
• CLL 037 DoD Supply Chain Fundamentals
• CLL 046 The Twelve Integrated Product Support Elements
• Integrated Product Support (IPS) Elements (ACQuipedia Overview Article)
• Integrated Product Support (IPS) Element – Packaging, Handling, Storage and Transportation (PHS&T) ACQuipedia Article

Next up: Sustaining Engineering!