Book Description

The basic intent of this study is to provide additional empirical evidence to analysts evaluating whether a system ought to be competed to obtain overall cost savings. Although the items studied were not major systems themselves, they were components of major systems, and unlike major systems they were numerous enough to readily test statistically. The extent to which these items have competitive savings behavior similar to that of major systems is not known. Comparison with Lovett and Norton data, however, suggested similar characteristics may be present. The findings of this study are fairly consistent with other related research. An analyst would be prudent to treat sole source and competitive learning curve slopes as equal or with slight improvement for competition, and to remember the greater variability of competitive slopes. A reasonable percentage savings estimate is likely to be between 15% and 25% with the distribution modified by specific considerations of the system under study.