An Empirical Analysis of the Impacts of Adopting Lean Purchasing and Supplier Management Principles on the Participation of Small Businesses Within T

The Small Business Act requires that small business concerns be afforded the maximum practicable opportunity to participate in Federal contracts and subcontracts. The contract dollars awarded to small businesses by the Air Force have been on the decline for several years and the Air Force is not meeting its small business award goals. This thesis is a follow-on research effort to that conducted by Mr. Bruce Miller (GAQ-02M) who proposed a connection between the Lean Aerospace Initiative's (LAI) Purchasing and Supplier Management (PSM) principles and declining small business participation.