R-TOC Best Practices

The designation of 30 programs as R-TOC Pilot Programs was expected to have several beneficial impacts on ownership cost growth. The 30 Pilot Programs represent a significant fraction of the total DoD inventory of systems, and any ownership cost reduction initiatives accomplished by the Pilot Programs will contribute directly to reducing DoD ownership costs.

However, the R-TOC Working Group has recognized that the real benefits of R-TOC can only be achieved if all DoD programs are enlisted in the effort to reduce ownership costs. Therefore, an even more important purpose of the Pilot Programs is to document what works and share this information with other DoD programs that are not R-TOC Pilots. This chapter describes some successful R-TOC initiatives.

The best practices are organized in six sections. The first three sections describe innovative practices in the area of R-TOC management, discuss some innovative efforts by Pilot Programs to develop new R-TOC assessment tools, and describe acquisition practices that can help reduce TOC. The last three sections present best practices in the three primary R-TOC focus areas: reliability and maintainability improvements, supply chain response time improvements and footprint reduction, and competitive product support.