Improving the Air Force Small-Business Performance Expectations Methodology
Abstract
The U.S. government is interested in helping small businesses, and it does so by funneling some of its purchasing to them by using procurement preferences. Its goal is to award small businesses 23 percent of all eligible federal obligations (Pub. L. 85-536, 2013). Federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), contribute toward this goal with agency-specific small-business goals. Within DoD, the military services have individual small-business goals that partly depend on the goods and services they purchase.2 The U.S. Air Force has fallen short in recent years of the small-business improvement goals it set for itself. Its 2013 goal was15.0 percent, but actual use was 14.5 percent; its 2012 goal was 16.99 percent, but actual use was14.8 percent. In 2013, the Air Force initiated a new Performance Expectations initiative to increase small-business use by its major commands (MAJCOMs) and Program Executive Offices (PEOs), setting objectives for using small businesses tailored to spending patterns in each organization. The Air Force is trying to identify industries that have the most potential for increasing small-business expenditures, focusing especially on other-than-small business(OTSB) contracts that could be shifted to small businesses. The Air Force Office of Small Business Programs asked RAND Project AIR FORCE to review the new method for setting Performance Expectations objectives and to recommend possible improvements. This report responds to that request. The recommendations herein are meant to increase the methodologys accuracy and not to increase or decrease the Performance Expectations themselves.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1085281
Entities
People
- Amy G. Cox
- Clifford Grammich
- Judith D. Mele
- Nancy Y. Moore
Organizations
- RAND Corporation