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6,071 page views
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Primary Functional Area : Life Cycle Logistics
- "The period of time from logistics demand signal sent to satisfaction of that logistics demand required for weapon system logistics support." Source: Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Memorandum, “Performance Based Logistics: Purchasing Using Performance Criteria,” 16 August 2004
- "Logistics Response Time is the period of calendar time from when a failure/malfunction is detected and validated by the maintainer to the time that the failure/malfunction has been resolved. This includes: the time from when a need is identified until the provider satisfies that need, all associated supply chain and maintenance time, and delivery times of parts" Source: Army PBL Guidebook
- Measures the delivery times of parts to military customers for materiel requisitioned through the DoD logistics systems or other delivery means to a predetermined location.
- According to Benjamin S. Blanchard’s (2004), Logistics Engineering and Management, 6th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, Logistics Response Time (LRT), is “the time that is consumed from the point when a system support requirement is first identified until that requirement has been satisfied (this may include the time required for the provisioning and procurement of a new item, the time to ship an item from inventory to the location of need, the time required to acquire the necessary personnel or test equipment for maintenance, and so on).”
As can readily be seen from the above definitions, Logistics Response Time is not consistently defined and is often confused with other frequently-used response metrics such as Customer Wait Time (CWT) and Mean Logistics Delay Time (MLDT).
The Army definition includes all the time beginning at identification of a failure or malfunction and ending upon the satisfaction of any logistics requirements--including personnel, spares, or any other need identified to correct the malfunction. It also includes corrective maintenance time.
The OSD definition could be interpreted to encompass the Army’s definition, or might be more narrowly defined to address only spare parts; hence the last definition above which is focused solely on the supply system. As with many other metrics, particularly those used in a performance-based product support—or PBL—environment, care must be taken to appropriately define the parameters of the metric and achieve a common understanding of that definition among the various stakeholders. As the Product Support Manager Guidebook says:
- "Note that these metrics must be mathematically and qualitatively described before they are useful. Additionally, they should be:
- Linked to system level required sustainment metrics objectives
- Appropriate to scope and responsibility
- Specify unit of measure
- Specify acceptable range or threshold
- Motivate desired long-term behavior
- Understood and accepted
- Easy to collect data and verify
- Can be readily assessed
- Provide timely feedback"
Logistics Response Time (LRT) is but one of many possible expressions of downtime and as such potentially may be used as an element of an Operational Availability (AO) calculation. To re-emphasize, if used in such a calculation, LRT must be carefully defined as to what elements of downtime it includes and how it is measured, i.e. when the clock starts and when it stops.
Chapter 5 of the Defense Acquisition Guidebook (DAG) also captures LRT within the Performance-Based Life-Cycle Product Support Implementation Framework (Figure 5.1.1.3.F1). The framework is incremental and consists of five categories (1 thru 5), with each successive category building upon the previous one. The framework is based on the best features within the public and private sectors which is a key component of the program manager’s support strategy. In Category 2 the financial risks begin to transition in narrow but critical supply chain functional areas. Logistics Response Time is one of the typical metrics (in addition to Mean Down Time (MDT)), that measures parts availability for Level 2 implementations where the time it takes the supplier to deliver the part, the commodity, or service to the user determines their payment. With this approach, care must be given to the requirements and contract terms to ensure that they drive the supplier’s behavior so the government achieves an affordable material readiness outcome.
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Page Information
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Page Views
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6,071
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Created on
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10/7/2011
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Modified on
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10/4/2016
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Last Reviewed
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9/27/2016
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