The Department of Defense Better Buying Power Essay

The Department of Defense Better Buying Power - Essay Example d goods, which was aimed at gaining extra value for the American taxpayer by increasing productivity and efficiency in defense spending (Parrish, 2012). The first phase of the BBP planned to cut spending by $487 billion for the entire DOD in ten years, and the lessons learnt since its implementation have been incorporated into creating BBP 2.0, which was initiated in 2013. Since the implementation of the first phase in 2010 and the second in 2013, there are numerous examples of acquisition executives adhering to the BBP initiative. According to Kendall (2014), the initiative has been a qualified success with evidence suggesting that the practices and policies of BBP have taken hold and opportunity for improvement still abounds. BBP refers to DODs plan to use best practices in strengthening its buying power, improving the productivity and efficiency of the department, and to give the war-fighter value-added and affordable military capability. The initiative consists of essential principles of military acquisitions that seek to attain improved efficiency by promoting competition, doing away with bureaucratic and unproductive acquisition processes, and controlling costs. As a result, the DOD expects that the overall outcome of the initiative will be the improvement of tradecraft in service acquisition. While it should also, provide incentives to improve government and military industry innovation and productivity. BBP 2.0 was a further initiative created to improve on BBP 1.0, seeking to build on the DODs commitment towards continually improving their acquisition practices. Some of the plans put into place that show the initiative’s progress include the Defense Acquisition Board’s affordability analysis, which seeks to facilitate decision making on defense investments. For instance, opportunities for smaller entrepreneurs have been given additional focus and attention, while military services are now using cost-estimates as standard practice. Majority of