Since the 1980s, the language used around market-based government has muddied its meaning and polarized its proponents and critics, making the topic politicized and controversial. Competition, Choice, and Incentives in Government Programs hopes to reframe competing views of market-based government so it is seen not as an ideology but rather as a fact-based set of approaches for managing government services and programs more efficiently and effectively. Published in cooperation with IBM.

The Department of Defense (DoD) is the largest organization in the world, with operations that span a broad range of agencies, activities, and commands. With an annual budget over $500 billion, DoD employs millions of people that operate worldwide and maintains an inventory system that is an order of magnitude larger than any other in the world. However, the business systems used to manage these resources are outdated and inefficient. DoD relies on several thousand, non-integrated, and non-interoperable legacy systems, that are error prone, redundant, and do not provide the enterprise visibility necessary to make sound management decisions. In order to meet current and future challenges, DoD needs business systems that enable it to be flexible, adaptive, and accountable. Transformation of business systems and process will not only reduce costs and improve performance, it is critical for improving warfighter support. Recognizing this, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld began a business transformation initiative in July 2001. This report is divided into two parts. Part I evaluates DoD's business systems transformation effort, identifies lessons learned, and make recommendations to improve the prospects for success of the current business transformation effort. Part II includes several cases studies of business systems transformation in the federal public sector, at the Business Transformation Agency (BTA), and in the Military Services. Each case describes a specific transformation initiative and identifies lessons learned from the experience.

'Sustainment' (as commonly defined by industry and government), is comprised of maintenance, support, and upgrade practices that sustain or improve the performance of a system and maximize the availability of goods and services while minimizing their cost and footprint or, more simply, the capacity of a system to endure. Sustainment is a multi-trillion-dollar enterprise for critical systems, in both government (infrastructure and defense) and industry (transportation, industrial controls, data centers, and energy generation).This book is a mix of engineering, operations research, and policy sciences intended to provide students with a thorough understanding of the concept of sustainability and sustainable product life-cycles, and an appreciation of the importance of sustaining critical systems. It starts from the key attributes for system sustainment that includes data analytics, engineering analysis and the public policy needed to support the development of technologies, processes, and frameworks required for the management of sustainable processes and practices. The specific topics covered include: acquisition of critical systems, reliability, maintenance, availability, readiness, inventory management, supply-chain management and risks, contracting for sustainment, and various analysis methodologies (discounted cash flow analysis, discrete-event simulation and Monte Carlo methods). Practice problems are included at the end of each chapter.

World-class, commercial supply chain management standards are now exceptionally high. The best organizations measure order-to-receipt time in two days or less, with near perfect probability. This speed is backed up by nimble systems capable of rapidly responding to unexpected contingencies and surge requirements. Unfortunately, while the commercial sector has been rapidly adopting modern, information-based supply chain systems in order to remain competitive in the worldwide marketplace the shift to such systems in the public sector has met with significant resistance and has moved far more slowly. Transforming Government Supply Chain Management provides the insights and expertise to overcome this inertia. In Part I, the editors provide a primer on supply chain management, an overview of innovative practices and tools, and a blueprint for government-wide transformation. Part II consists of ten case studies of public and private sector 'success stories.' The intent of this book is to help speed-up the needed transformation in the public sector."

World-class, commercial supply chain management standards are now exceptionally high. The best organizations measure order-to-receipt time in two days or less, with near perfect probability. This speed is backed up by nimble systems capable of rapidly responding to unexpected contingencies and surge requirements. Unfortunately, while the commercial sector has been rapidly adopting modern, information-based supply chain systems in order to remain competitive in the worldwide marketplace the shift to such systems in the public sector has met with significant resistance and has moved far more slowly. Transforming Government Supply Chain Management provides the insights and expertise to overcome this inertia. In Part I, the editors provide a primer on supply chain management, an overview of innovative practices and tools, and a blueprint for government-wide transformation. Part II consists of ten case studies of public and private sector "success stories." The intent of this book is to help speed-up the needed transformation in the public sector.