The report investigates the barriers that service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs) may face when attempting to contract with the federal government and the Department of Defense. The government and DoD goals are to award 3 percent of prime-contract dollars to SDVOSBs but current contracting falls below that level.

The authors review Air Force purchases of 3low-demand2 parts, analyzing how much the Air Force spends on such parts and the types of parts that have a low demand. They then identify and synthesize best commercial purchasing and supply chain management practices used for developing supply strategies for such items, concluding with recommendations for the Air Force to improve its supply strategies for such items.

This report presents a construct for reorganizing Air Force acquisition and purchasing activities by implementing purchasing and supply management. This report presents a construct for reorganizing Air Force acquisition and purchasing activities using purchasing and supply management (PSM). PSM involves managing not only suppliers but the entire supply network. A PSM demonst ration was chartered and eight initiatives were targeted to help modernize the spares process and ultimately put more spares into the hands of maintainers. The report presents a flexible, springboard design to guide implementation of the process.