Air Force shifts to strategic contracting

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Thomas J. Doscher
  • Air Combat Command Public Affairs
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (ACCNS) --  The Air Force will regionalize contracting offices across the continental United States in an effort to streamline operations and increase efficiency.

The first regional acquisition center came online in San Antonio Jan. 1.

"Currently we do our business tactically," said Col. David Glowacki, Air Combat Command Contracting Division chief. "We have contracting squadrons at each installation, and they support the wings. But we're not looking across the enterprise for opportunities where if we could do things at a command or Air Force level, we could have larger contracts or more cost effective strategies in place to acquire goods and services at a cost effective approach."

Colonel Glowacki said the answer is a larger unit that can make use of strategic sourcing opportunities that do not just affect one base, but multiple bases throughout a region. For instance, instead of having a grounds-keeping contract at each base in North Carolina, a single contract could be written to handle that same job at every base in that area.

Strategic sourcing is a collaborative and structured process of critically analyzing an organization's procurements and using the information to make strategic business decisions about acquiring commodities and services more effectively. Those decisions could save the Air Force time and money that could be put toward other goals, Colonel Glowacki said.

"We're trying to return back to the Air Force some of those operations and maintenance dollars for recapitalization," he said. "We're looking for opportunities to reduce our costs and we feel that by using strategic sourcing as that methodology, we can take advantage of some those opportunities we couldn't previously and save some of those O and M dollars."

While saving money, officials say the new structure will also be more efficient.

"The transformed installation acquisition structure focuses on the use of strategic sourcing, minimizes supply chain costs through integration and collaboration, and results in considerable annual savings to the Air Force," said Charlie E. Williams Jr., deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for contracting. "It creates increased visibility and accountability in the acquisition process, and simplifies purchasing at the installation level."

Under the new system, the U.S. is divided into five regions, each with a regional acquisition center assigned to it. The first region to use the new system will be the South West, with a center in San Antonio. The other four regions will come online later with acquisition centers in Hampton Roads, Va.; Warner Robbins Air Force Base, Ga.; Scott AFB, Ill.; and Colorado Springs, Co.

As a result, contracting units at the wing level will see manpower cuts, with individual contracting squadrons being halved or more.

"The squadrons at the installations will be significantly downsized," he said. "A lot of the heavy lifting will be done at the regional center. For those contracting units that remain, their job will be to provide business advisory support for that installation and help them develop requirements and get those requirements into that system."

Colonel Glowacki said there are still questions that need to be answered and wrinkles to iron out, but that the regional system is necessary, though the change will be difficult at first.

"The Air Force has always been about change," he said. "This is a big change for us, but it's something that needed right now, and we have to do it if we're going to be successful and viable in the future."

"Strap in," he advised. "It's going to be a challenging ride."