Why Care About Contract Deliverables Data Management?
One of the more frequent observations that we at CMstat takeaway after meeting with a prospective customer in the A&D industry is the lack of awareness in the job function of those who manage the delivery of CDRL data and documentation to their own customers.
While some managers may be familiar with Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL) and Subcontract Data Requirements List (SDRL), few will appreciate all the hurdles their organizations have to jump over to collect, review, correct, submit, track, approve, and update all the data deliverables associated with a contract, all while maintaining an auditable trail of history and regulatory compliance over many years.
It’s not surprising that this function is misunderstood and thus undervalued by those on the periphery as it has been described using different names, definitions, and acronyms over the years. These include: CDRL Management, Data Management (DM), Deliverables Data Management (DDM), Product Data Management (PDM), and more recently as Contract Deliverables Data Management (CDDM). Unfortunately, some references make the work appear to be clerical in nature–which it is anything but when performed correctly–while other names elevate it to an enterprise IT data management function, which is also misleading.
Much managerial attention and organizational budget has historically been heaped upon engineering and manufacturing to deliver the physical product out the back door to customers after a contract comes in through the front door. Yet, only a few within the organization–typically in the contract, program, or finance office–realize that receiving interim or final payment on a contract is as much if not more dependent on getting all the digital data and supporting documentation to the customer through the digital side door. With more programs, even small ones now, being awarded on performance-based terms, the overall profitability of a contract can be won or lost based on the completeness, accuracy, and efficiency of this data deliverables process.
In recent years OEM’s and their supply chains have invested heavily in enterprise PLM, ERP, and SCM solutions to improve product innovation, development, manufacturing and sourcing. However, they often overlooked the equally important back office function that supports the collection, verification, sharing, reconciliation, submission, securing, auditing, and archiving of contract deliverables data. This is what we at CMstat call Contract Deliverables Data Management or CDDM to avoid confusion with other forms of data management including engineering data, product data or IT data, all which some might mistakenly assume are covered by existing enterprise solutions.
CMstat recently authored the new whitepaper “Improving Program Profitability with Contract Deliverables Data Management Using CMstat’s EPOCH DM” to help managers in the contract supply chain better understand the CDDM function and opportunities for its improvement. From this improved understanding their organizations can then begin to standardize, automate, and optimize processes which will contribute to the increased profitability of performance-based contracts.
In this most comprehensive paper we explore many of the topics and questions CMstat has encountered from over twenty years in serving the aviation, aerospace, and defense contracting community. These include:
Why the Management of Data Deliverables is So Critical To Successful Contracts
Today’s Challenging Environment for A&D Contractors
Requirements of Contract Deliverables Data Management Solutions
Strategy Scenarios for Deploying CDDM Solutions
Introducing CMstat and EPOCH DM
EPOCH DM Capabilities for CDDM
An EPOCH DM Customer Use Profile
EPOCH DM Benefits and Value to Industry
For managers who are already familiar with the data deliverables function, we examine the requirements for and functionality desired in best-of-class, rapidly deployable CDDM solutions. For those who are ready to evaluate CDDM applications, the capabilities of EPOCH DM are detailed along with an example customer profile including the many benefits received.
Finally, for those managers who would rather “see more” and “read less”, CMstat will offer a webinar this March on CDDM best practices for the A&D industry. To receive notice of the webinar date be sure to follow our CMsights blog.
The paper can be downloaded upon demand by visiting our Downloads Page.
Until then, we welcome hearing your experiences with educating management on the as-is state of the data deliverables process, or how you justified more attention and investment be directed at to-be state improvements. Just leave us a comment or send me an email to ttesmer@cmstat.com.
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