Estimating the Benefits of the Air Force Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Initiative

Abstract

One element of the U.S. Air Force’s quest to transform its logistics processes to better support the warfighter is the implementation of purchasing and supply-chain management (PSCM). The goals are to reduce supply-chain operating costs and improve warfighter readiness through customer-centric processes that link demand and supply planning, purchasing, inventory management, and suppliers. But how can the success or failure of such efforts be gauged when “all other things” are not being “held constant”? Other factors have been changing at the same time that PSCM has been implemented, and some of these may also have affected outcomes linked to these goals. RAND Project AIR FORCE has addressed this challenge by developing an econometric model to account for such “co-occurring” factors. This monograph describes the resulting method and illustrates it with a National Item Identification Number (NIIN)–level analysis of quarterly mission capable (MICAP) incidents in the context of Air Force Materiel Command’s (AFMC’s) own PSCM initiative.