Vertical integration to prevent exploitation by suppliers
Here is the conclusion from Kirk Monteverde and David J. Teece’s 1982 paper, Supplier Switching Costs and Vertical Integration in the Automobile Industry: Transactions cost […]
in-house
Resolving the cognitive dissonance in naval planning
The U.S. Navy now faces contradictory demands. On the one hand, Congress and others are telling it to heed the lessons of recent catastrophes and […]
NASA, SpaceX, and the development of extravehicular space suits
In 2017, NASA decided to design, test, and produce xEMU [Extravehicular Mobility Units] suits in-house. As a result, the Agency would serve as the prime […]
Should government own the technical baseline?
GFE — which is government furnished equipment — many times has a negative connotation to it. You would think that anytime the government is furnishing […]
What’s the secret sauce in AFRL’s Space Vehicle Directorate?
… our secret sauce is that we have some organic capability to do things. What I mean by that is we have actual scientists and […]
Podcast: Digital acquisition with Bryon Kroger and Matt Nelson
Bryon Kroger and Matt Nelson joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to talk about digital transformation in the Department of Defense. They are the […]
How should government own the technical baseline?
In 1989, Kodak contracted with IBM to outsource its IT operations, creating the IT outsourcing industry. Kodak’s IT outsourcing proved disastrous. With a 10-year, $250 […]
Podcast: Navy shipyards and defense supply chains with Maiya Clark
Researcher Maiya Clark at the Heritage Foundation joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss her recent paper on the Navy’s public shipyards as […]
Should government perform 30 percent of development in-house?
My distinguished colleague from New Mexico, Mr. Runnels, asked the Defense witness, “Who made this decision to put it-the level of R. & D. to […]
Podcast: The future of Navy software development with Lt. Sean Lavelle
I was pleased to speak with Navy Lieutenant Sean Lavelle on the Acquisition Talk podcast. He is the founder and lead of the iLoc development […]
Do commercial practices trivialize the challenges of defense acquisition?
In this paper, we consider the latest stage in the on-going organisational evolution of the defence procurement function in Australia which has been dominated by […]