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News | Nov. 29, 2017

Distribution Acquisition Operations hones skills with Services Acquisition Workshop

To practice the steps of a service acquisition process, members of DLA Distribution’s Acquisition Operations recently participated in a Services Acquisition Workshop (SAW).

The goal of the workshop, run by the Defense Acquisition University, is to train and “ramp up” an acquisition team at the beginning of an acquisition process.  Although this particular workshop was not based on a specific acquisition, most are built around a specific acquisition and its Multi-Functional Integrated Process Team (MFIPT).  

The SAW aims to help team members understand the overall service acquisition process steps and how to use the process to have a more efficient acquisition as well as providing the fundamental knowledge to get started and know what additional resources are available for learning more about each key step in the services acquisition process.

“For the training, the instructor walked the team through the service acquisition process, and participants focused on developing a beginning to end acquisition strategy,” said Rose Snavely-Howe, director of DLA Distribution’s Acquisition Management division.

The strategy included defining and refining service requirements in order to create an initial draft of the Performance Work Statement and Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan. 

The instructor also walked participants through the development of acquisition planning, market research, performance requirements, request for proposal, source selection, and contractor performance assessment planning and execution documents.  

According to Snavely-Howe, although the training is a requirement for Services Acquisitions with a total acquisition value of $500 million, or an annual value of $250M or more, this workshop focused on the overall benefits of a SAW.  “This workshop was somewhat of a deviation from the normal workshops in that it was an opportunity for DAU to learn about Distribution’s Acquisition Planning/Assistance Program and our personnel to learn SAW benefits. The workshop identified some tools and concepts the Distribution Acquisition Planning/Assistance Program will incorporate into our End-to-End Acquisition Processes as we continually improve our processes and services to our customers.”

Based on what was learned in this SAW, DLA Distribution has submitted a request for an acquisition-specific SAW to be conducted in the future.