Total Package Procurement
Total Package Procurement (TPP or alternatively TPPC) was a major systems acquisition policy introduced in the United States Department of Defense in the mid-1960s by Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara.[1] It was conceived by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Installations and Logistics, Robert H. Charles.[2]
TPP involves combining as a single package for the procurement a number of related requirements including the design, development, production and support of major systems.[3] This concept was a "pendulum reaction" to the prior cost reimbursement policies in major weapon systems.[4]
Total Package Procurement was not successful and was abandoned shortly after MacNamara left office.[5][6]
Contents
Description
TPP is a method of procuring at the outset of the acquisition phase under a single contract containing price, performance and schedule commitments, the maximum practical amount of design, development, production and support needed to introduce and sustain a system or component in the inventory.[3]
The purpose of TPP was to procure under the influence of competition as much of the total design, development, production and support requirements for a system or component as may be practicable thereby:
- Providing firmer 5-year force structure program package planning information concerning performance cost and schedules.[3]
- Discouraging contractors from buying in on the design and development effort with the intention of recovering on the subsequent production program.[3]
- Permitting program decision and source selection based on binding performance price and schedule commitments by contractors for the total program or major part of it.[3]
- Providing a firmer basis for projecting total acquisition and operational costs for use in source selection and in the determination of appropriate contractual incentives.[3]
- Motivating contractors to design initially for economical production and support of operational hardware which may not receive sufficient emphasis in the absence of productions commitments.[3]
- Requiring contractors to assume more responsibility for program success thereby permitting the Government to monitor programs more in terms of surveillance and less in terms of detailed management.[3]
Results
Total Package Procurement did not succeed.[5] The unique complexity of shipbuilding made Total Package Procurement particularly inappropriate for these programs.[5]
Notable programs that encountered major problems with the TPP approach were the Air Force's Lockheed C-5 Galaxy[1] and AGM-69 SRAM,[7] the Army's Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne,[7] the Tarawa-class amphibious assault ships (LHA),[5] and the Spruance-class destroyers.[5]
Elimination
Upon taking office as Deputy Secretary of Defense in 1970, David Packard issued a memorandum on 28 May 1970 that contained a number of major reforms designed to address "the real mess we have on our hands." A key reform was elimination of TPP except in rare situations.[6]
References
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