PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. -- The Department of Defense has recognized the Program Executive Office (PEO) Ammunition at Picatinny Arsenal for developing an innovative strategy to meet the surging demands of supplying ammunition to our coalition partners, while ensuring competition and keeping costs low.
Frank Kendall, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L), announced in a memo Nov. 10 that the Project Manager Maneuver Ammunition (PM MAS) had won a 2016 David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award. PM MAS is part of the PEO Ammunition organization.
"Congratulations to the Department of the Army's Project Manager Maneuver Ammunition Systems team on its selection as a 2016 David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award winner," Kendall said in the memo to the winners.
"As our most prestigious acquisition team award, the David Packard Award recognizes organizations that have demonstrated exemplary performance and innovation in acquiring and delivering products and capabilities for the Warfighter," Kendall explained.
The David Packard Award recognizes organizations that have demonstrated superior management and accomplishment in the successful execution of one or more of the Better Buying Power acquisition efficiency initiatives, according to the defense department.
Since 2008, PM MAS's Product Director Non-Standard Ammunition (NSA) has delivered over 1 billion rounds of munitions to 23 countries on five continents. The largest demand for NSA has been and remains in the Central Command area of responsibility, specifically to Afghanistan and Iraq in support of counter Islamic State of Iraq and Levant efforts.
PM MAS received the Packard Award for their innovative acquisition approach, which shortened delivery times when supplying the Iraqi and Afghan National Army with ammunition to fight ISIL.
"There was a swelling demand for Eastern European produced munitions at a time when those plants were starting to change to NATO calibers. This was causing NSA delivery schedules to stretch longer and longer," explained Lt. Col. Lawrence Dring. "However, being able to provide rapid delivery of NSA is critical to the national security interests of the United States and her allied partners."
To expedite completing ammunition requirements, Dring said that PM MAS employed several focus areas of Better Buying Power 1.0 - 3.0, as well as Life Cycle management initiatives, to achieve superior agility and effectiveness supporting the coalition Warfighter. The PM NSA office effectively used innovative Better Buying Power through a Systems Contracts approach coupled with the establishment of a strategic ammunition supply to reduce NSA delivery to a fraction of the time.
A multiple award, 5-year IDIQ contract was awarded to two contractors who would compete for requirements on a delivery order basis to include Firm Fixed Price with not to exceed (NTE) ceiling prices. The NTE pricing for the Contract Line Item Numbers were proposed based on a delivery schedule of 6 months after award, which is basically the threshold performance for an NDI item.
However, when a requirement is received that is urgent, the strategy is to compete the delivery order indicating schedule as being significantly more important that price, enabling a provision for price to exceed the NTE. If the delivery schedule proposed for these items is earlier than the 6 months, a Best Value competition is initiated. This has spurred management innovation on the part of the contractors by providing a structured process by which companies can bid an accelerated schedule, knowing that any increased costs are acceptable and competed.
As a result of the new contract, requirements with delivery times of 24-36 months were reduced in many cases to 6 months or less. Partnering with other government agencies improved effectiveness of the PM to deliver requirements for some cases in less than 2 months.
"I'm proud of the PM MAS team, and all the organizations at Picatinny who help provide our coalition partners with the safe, reliable, and life-saving ammunition and weapon systems," said Jim Shields, Program Executive Officer Ammunition. "The NSA office supports the strategic interests of our country because it equips our coalition partners and enables them to fight our common adversaries, which puts fewer U.S. service members lives at risk."
"Due to our innovation, acquisition experience and close relationships with contractors and suppliers, we were able to adapt our processes to meet the speedy requirements of our coalition partners," Shields said.
WINNERS:
The Packard award was first awarded in 1997 in honor of the late David Packard, a former deputy secretary of defense and an advocate of excellence in defense acquisition practices. It is the highest award in DoD acquisition.
This is the fifth time PEO Ammunition has won the Packard Award, and the third time for PM MAS. The PM MAS team was one of three that the defense department recognized for acquisition excellence this year.
Aside from PM MAS, the other Packard winners were Next Generation Jammer Increment 1 team from the Navy and the Acquisition Rapid Response Light Tactical Vehicle team at Special Operations Command.
The Joint Program Office Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV) team from the Army/Marine Corps was selected to receive the 2016 Should Cost and Innovation Award.
The awards will be presented in a ceremony at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., later this month.
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