Understanding and Improving Depot Level Reparable Pricing for Air Force Systems

The Air Force has been under enormous pressure to reduce depot maintenance costs for weapon and support systems. To do this efficiently and effectively, requires a thorough knowledge of the cost of repairs to the component level. This knowledge enables the Air Force to: make sound judgments with respect to repair sourcing, determine the cost effectiveness of repair processes, justify continued expenditures for organic repair, and produce accurate comparative data. While the Air Force has made some progress in improving its capabilities in this area, it has yet to fully implement necessary procedural and system reforms.The Air Force's ability to trace costs to individual systems and components is extremely limited due to the outmoded costing systems in use at its Air Logistics Centers. This paper investigates the difficulties in determining the actual costs of performing repairs on systems and components, and makes recommendations on methods, procedures, and systems to improve the accuracy of repair costing.