The Navy released a list of its top 30 companies or company divisions that have demonstrated superior work. Assembling this list is part of a pilot program to identify the contractors that deliver what they promise on time and at agreed cost, said Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall during a press conference on June 13. All the services will soon follow suit with their own lists. Called the Superior Supplier Incentive program, the idea is to identify companies doing well on their government work, then discuss with them what the Pentagon forces them to do that adds no value to the contract. The idea is to eliminate non-value-added steps and deliver more profit to the companies, or stated differently, “align profitability with performance” and save the government money, said Kendall. It will also be important for those companies not on the list to figure out why, he said, and get busy improving their processes and performance. The Army and Air Force “will expand and adopt the same methodology … so a year from now, all the services will … publish the superior suppliers and identify those suppliers,” said Kendall. (See Navy release for list of suppliers.) (Kendall-Stackley transcript)
While the Space Force is still making long-term plans to establish high-fidelity live and virtual test and training ranges in the coming years, officials say they're also working with operators to identify near-term gaps and quickly field capabilities to address them.
