This report provides a strategic view of the analytical capabilities that are needed by the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center (AFIMSC) to allocate resources to and assess the performance of installation and mission support activities. AFIMSC needs a coherent, rational, and transparent method to allocate resources across missions and installations.
Support to the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center
Enabling AFIMSC's Role in Agile Combat Support Planning, Execution, Monitoring, and Control
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Research Question
- What analytical capabilities will enable rational, transparent resource allocation decisions and performance assessment across the planning, programming, budgeting, and execution system time horizon?
The U.S. Air Force is in the midst of transforming the way agile combat support (ACS) is managed to support training, steady state operations, and contingency operations. The reorganization of Air Force Materiel Command into the five-center construct was one significant milestone in the transformation. Another is the establishment of the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center (AFIMSC).
This report provides a strategic view of the analytical capabilities that are needed by AFIMSC to allocate resources to and assess the performance of installation and mission support activities. AFIMSC needs a coherent, rational, and transparent method to allocate resources across missions and installations. The Air Force needs a common lexicon of metrics, clear business rules, and a construct to report enterprise performance to senior leaders.
Key Findings
Evolving the Analytical Capabilities of AFIMSC Is a Complex Challenge
- As the principal supplier of installation and mission support resources, AFIMSC needs a coherent, rational, and transparent method to allocate resources across missions and installations.
- AFIMSC cannot just adopt the status quo system where resources allocations were made absent enterprise-wide standards for support and insights into the operational impact of those decisions.
- A common lexicon of metrics, clear business rules, and a construct to report enterprise performance to senior leaders is needed to implement a framework for making rational resource allocation decisions and have the ability to communicate the impact of those decisions to operators.
- Some processes that the Air Force has already established can be tailored to facilitate creating an enterprise measurement and management structure. Air Force Material Command's Weapon System Enterprise Review, which provides a comprehensive review of the status of weapon systems, is an example.
Recommendations
- The Air Force should implement an analytical framework for AFIMSC, as the supplier of installation and mission support resources, that provides meaningful trade-off information to both the customers of installation and mission support capabilities and an integrator responsible for adjudicating mismatches between demand and supply.
- Develop a lexicon and set of business rules in concert with installation and mission support customers to inform resource allocation and risk assessment.
- Implement an approach to an enterprise-wide measure system that is based on the Weapon System Enterprise Review, in use at Air Force Materiel Command today, and includes a standardized capability rating structure for installation and mission support capabilities.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Introduction
Chapter Two
An Operational Framework for AFIMSC as an Enterprise Manager
Chapter Three
Analytical Framework to Support AFIMSC Decisions
Chapter Four
Implementing the Proposed Framework
Chapter Five
Conclusions, Recommendations, and Next Steps
Appendix A
Summary of Prior RAND Research on ACS C2
Appendix B
Quantifying the Effects of Home-Station ACS Shortfalls
Appendix C
Illustrative Alignment of COLS to Installation Support and Mission Support Capability Ratings
Appendix D
Illustrative Mapping of Program Element Categories to Air Force COLS
Research conducted by
This report was commissioned by the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center (AFIMSC) and Air Education and Training Command Director of Logistics (AETC/A4) and conducted by the Resource Management Program within RAND Project AIR FORCE.
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