An interactive supply framework to improve the successful outcome of the acquisition of a complex system

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The investigation into and interest in the effect of the human factors in the successful execution of a program started in the middle part of the author's 35-year career when he worked as a program manager responsible for the supply of a ground-based weapon system.An improved understanding of the specific interface between the customer's and thesupplier's agents as a specific focus area is of interest. The new insights, thus obtained, will lead to improved interactive events and possible proactive and premeditated relationship strategies that can be used to increase or accelerate the propensity for the success of aproject. These new insights will provide the enterprise with a competitive advantage.The specific choice of the human factors to study had to include the leadership role tosupport the strategy, the relationship with the customer as it defines the interaction, the effectof informed decision making on the outcome and the standardised way of performing thesetasks within the organisation.The supply processes in the enterprise is a mirror image of the acquisition processesprescribed and practised by the western world's procurement agencies in the USA, UK,NATO and others. The notion of investigating the effect of the human factors on theelements of a typical set of supply processes gave rise to the formulation of the researchquestion as:What is the contribution of the human enabling factors of leadership, relationship,wisdom and culture towards the success of a project or enterprise during theacquisition phase of a complex system, when interacting with a customer?The research is made possible by the definition of the Executable Domain Factorsrepresenting, in a structured way, the supply processes and the Enabler Domain Factorsrepresenting the human factors listed above. These two domains are then combined into anInteractive Supply Framework to study the effect of one upon the other as required by theresearch question.The firm BAE Systems, Land Systems South Africa presented the author with anopportunity to observe, using a case study containing multiple cases, the effect of thesefactors in real life. The cases available spanned three customer bases (USA, NATO andSouth Africa), four product life cycles and four enterprise phases.The outcome of the case study, albeit limited in size and respondents, resulted in theidentification of the relationship factor as a dominant factor, which was supported by thecompany executive as well as the author's experience. The author also developed arelationship framework, in which the alignment of the different parties' belief systems mayaffect the relationship positively or negatively. The data from three of the cases with thesame product and customer, cover a span of ten years, and show a remarkable correlationbetween the change in the belief system factors for different teams on both sides as well asthe observed relationship status.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University