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Component obsolescence is a fact of life for both military and commercial systems and is a continuing issue for the Department of Defense (DoD). Until recently, DoD programs were funded sufficiently to solve obsolescence problems through the engineering change proposal (ECP) process. Today, with diminishing government funds, program managers must pursue other approaches. In addition, the increased use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products has shortened system life cycles and accelerated the pace of component obsolescence. To address the issue of component obsolescence, the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Logistics (OUSD-L) established the DoD Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS) Teaming Group. The Teaming Group is a formalized group of representatives from DoD programs and industry that work together to share solutions to common component obsolescence problems. The Teaming Group maintains a database of current information on component obsolescence and, whenever possible, explores resolutions that will work for all programs experiencing the obsolescence problem, often reducing the cost. For example, if a specific component used by more than one program is no longer offered by either the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or an aftermarket supplier (AMS), each affected program may determine that emulation—developing a form, fit, function, and interface (F3I) replacement—is the best resolution. Each affected program could then share the nonrecurring engineering costs equally.
Membership in the DMSMS Teaming Group is open to all procuring activities. Currently, no membership or computer usage fees are required. Perhaps the most important aspect of being part of the DMSMS Teaming Group is that members are actively involved in minimizing the risk of component obsolescence. In addition, team members:
Being a member of the Teaming Group does require investment of a certain amount of time. Team members communicate via telephone conference call every two weeks and attend quarterly meetings of three to five days’ duration, requiring some travel. The telephone conferences last about an hour and consist of an overview of any upcoming meetings and a review of each open case. During these phone calls, program representatives provide any new information to the team. In some cases, this information provides a way for other program representatives to solve their cases. For example, for one particular component, a program representative identified a replacement for consideration by the team. This resulted in a solution for two other affected programs. Teaming Group members must also develop a list of obsolete component part numbers (preferably in a database) and periodically update the Teaming Group database with the resolutions selected for their procuring activity’s program and with new obsolete components. Depending on what source is used to identify new obsolete components and whether the data may be electronically downloaded into the teaming database, this latter activity may not be time-intensive.
The DMSMS Teaming Group is an efficient, effective way to address component obsolescence. As budgets for procuring and support activities continue to decrease and downsizing reduces available resources, the Teaming Group becomes increasingly essential to the program community. By working together to solve DMSMS issues, DoD and industry can save both time and money. More important, by consolidating their requirements and sharing the cost of implementing resolutions, programs can realize even greater savings.
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