The ‘Shrinking’ Defense Industrial Base
The results from this study also showed that DoD can do a better job of retaining contractors, which would place less pressure on its need to attract new contractors to compensate for exits and to achieve its overall desire for a resilient supplier base. The leading reason for contractors exiting the DIB (representing just over one-third of all survey respondents) was an unfavorable characteristic of working with DoD. This means that DoD can positively impact the health of its own supplier base if it handles certain hygiene issues such as a cumbersome solicitation process and financial policies (particularly regarding profitability). These are DoD- specific factors that go beyond more general circumstances or distal conditions that might affect the overall business community. Hopefully, the knowledge gained from this survey of the relative prevalence of specific unfavorable characteristics can help inform DoD policy and acquisition interventions in the future. The authors recommend DoD maintain its own existing efforts to solicit and analyze contractor feedback about its acquisition processes. For example, DoD could continue to develop and encourage use of standardized feedback mechanisms like the offeror survey provided in 48 C.F.R. § 52.201-1, Acquisition 360: Voluntary Survey (see https:// www.acquisition.gov/far/52.201-1) and occasional agency-specific contractor surveys (e.g., the annual Defense Logistics Agency Supplier Survey). This type of voluntary feedback is critical in understanding how contractors experience the federal marketplace and in supporting continual improvement of the acquisition process.
220
Defense ARJ, Summer 2025, Vol. 32 No. 2: 194—223
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker