Air Force commodity Councils: leveraging the power of procurement
Abstract
The United States Air Force is always looking for ways to improve practices while leveraging the taxpayers? dollar. The Air Force currently spends about one-third of its annual budget on purchased goods and services. This offers the Air Force a large target in which to seek cost savings. Commercial firms have moved toward a commodity-council approach for purchasing in recent years, and the cost reductions realized have been impressive. Findings have shown that the increased leverage from commodity councils will optimize buying power for the Air Force, reduce duplication of effort, improve customer support, and minimize supply-chain costs through integration and collaboration. ?Commodity Council? is a term used to describe a cross-functional sourcing team designed to create a centralized purchasing strategy and establish centralized contracts for enterprise-wide requirements. The commodity council drives commonality and standardization and ensures the leveraging of purchasing volume. The key to this approach is to rely on market experts in the specific commodity category to make well informed, market-savvy decisions that fully meet all enterprise-wide requirements for a commodity. A ?commodity? is simply defined as a segmentable category of goods and/or services. Note, this definition does not imply an expendable or non-complex item (Hansen 1). In this research, I analyze the experiences of the newly-formed Air Force Information Technology Commodity Council (AFITCC) at Headquarters Standard Systems Group (HQ SSG or SSG), Maxwell Air Force Base (MAFB)?Gunter Annex, Alabama, for results and lessons learned.
Description
Acquisition research (Graduate School of Business & Public Policy)
NPS Report Number
NPS-CM-04-012Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
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Air Force Commodity Councils: Leveraging the Power of Procurement
Beth, Rairigh (2004-09-01); NPS-CM-04-012The United States Air Force is always looking for ways to improve practices while leveraging the taxpayers'' dollar. The Air Force currently spends about one-third of its annual budget on purchased goods and services. This ... -
Air Force commodity councils: a template for future implementation comparing successful and failed approaches
Osborn, Rachelle R.; Schoonmaker, John S. (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2007); NPS-AM-07-109In an effort to align sources with requirements, the Department of Defense has implemented initiatives that mirror industry's strategic sourcing practices. These initiatives include Consolidated Purchasing, Commodity ... -
Air Force Commodity Councils: a template for future implementation comparing successful and failed approaches
Osborn, Rachelle R.; Schoonmaker, John S. (Monterey, California, Naval Postgraduate School, 2007-12);In an effort to align sources with requirements, the Department of Defense has implemented initiatives that mirror industry's strategic sourcing practices. These initiatives include Consolidated Purchasing, Commodity ...