TASK 7: CALS Business Case Development
Final Model Business Case Report (December 2, 1994)
The purpose of this report is to put forth the authoring team's position on the contents and scope of the IWSDB business case. The Background Section sets the context for the Integrated Weapon System Database (IWSDB) business case and describes the concept of the IWSDB. It also explains strategies to make IWSDB business case methods and tools available more quickly. From the Defining an IWSDB Business Case Section, the reader will understand both the reason for the IWSDB business case analysis as well as the major contents of the business case. The Building the IWSDB Business Case Foundation Section contains the key concepts that make the IWSDB business case different from other "trade-off studies" or economic analyses, and presents the reader with a possible architecture and a specific set of capabilities for an IWSDB. The reader will be introduced to the role of the IWSDB Weapon System Technical Data Operation, the concept of cost drivers, activity cost analysis, action plans, and risk. The Building the Business Case Section contains the major steps in formulating an IWSDB business case. It is not a description of "how to" assemble a business case, but a description of the contents. The Transitioning to Implementation Section presents major considerations in achieving the TO-BE environment put forth in the IWSDB business case analysis. This section is not part of the business case, but rather is to be used as information that must be considered when developing action plans to migrate to the TO-BE environment. The reader will learn the characteristics and barriers of successful implementation for advanced technologies.
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Final Executive Summaries Report (Studies Report) (September 14, 1994)
A critical aspect of a weapon system program is the establishment of an Integrated Weapon System Database (IWSDB) in order to support the Government Concept of Operations (GCO) for a Government-/industry-supported shared data environment. Without the IWSDB, enabling technologies in engineering and manufacturing, [e.g., Concurrent Engineering (CE) and Flexible Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (FCIM)] become impossible to implement.
A shared data environment mandates the establishment of data element definitions and business rules that are universally accepted and systematically adopted in weapon system programs. Such definitions and rules eliminate the problems of redundancy and data element mapping inherent in existing legacy systems within the Department of Defense (DoD).
Achieving the goals envisaged in the GCO will require a considerable financial investment in weapon system and functional area process improvements, legacy data conversion, and technology infusion. The long-term economic impacts of this investment and the resulting cost benefits are quantified in the FEA and the business case. Although similar, the perspectives for each differ widely, even though both identify expected economic results from investment dollars. The business case is an FEA-like analysis of the weapon system program across functional areas. The program manager must possess the methods, techniques, and tools to easily prepare business cases for the creation and use of the weapon system IWSDB.
The studies gathered during this Subtask of Task 7 have been selected in order to identify the approach taken by various Government and industry organizations to quantify the economic impacts of process changes over time. The studies have focused, where possible, on engineered and manufactured products, particularly those utilizing state-of-the-art enabling technologies.
This report includes a discussion of the search criteria, discovery process, and summaries of the economic analysis reports.
Final CALS and EC/EDI Report for the OSD CALS IWSDB Project (July 22, 1994)
This report contains our analysis of the lessons learned in all of the case studies included in our economic studies library. This task is addressing the need for a consistent approach for presenting different investment alternatives in order to establish an Integrated Weapon System Database (IWSDB) capability. Our approach, which we call a "business case," is similar to a Functional Economic Analysis (FEA) as promulgated by the Department of Defense (DoD) Corporate Information Management (CIM) initiative. While an FEA is a type of business case having a functional focus, the IWSDB business case offers another perspective, that is, the perspective of a weapon System Program Office (SPO). The SPO must consider constraints resulting from the current weapon system life-cycle acquisition phase, the cross-functional nature of the weapon system, and the concept of operations for Continuous Acquisition and Life-cycle Support/Electronic Data Interchange (CALS/EDI) support capabilities.