FORT LEE, Va. –
As the Defense Contract Management Agency continues to implement a detection-to-prevention focus when conducting business, employees leverage advances in manufacturing technology and information management.
The Product Data Reporting and Evaluation Program, which is an automated information system, reduces the time-consuming manual input of data and allows the sharing of developed surveillance plans. The system also provides a capability to retain and share records across the agency.
PDREP is now a mandated tool for certain acquisition and technical personnel for capturing the required contract administrative services data. In the past, CAS data was stored in separate, non-networked systems, and some of it was stored on individual government employee’s computers. At times, multiple groups were spending hours aggregating data sets and piecing together a broad overview of data to analyze cost, schedule, and performance.
PDREP provides DCMA employees with new capabilities for reducing manual and antiquated data input requirements and enables easier access to surveillance and related data. The system is a centralized repository for maintaining contractor performance information and risk analysis, and it reduces the time required to develop multifunctional surveillance plans. PDREP also allows customers in the program offices and buying commands access to performance information on their programs and sustainment procurements.
“The ease of using PDREP means contract administrative services data is available for analysis and can now be shared across DCMA supporting contractor performance, surveillance plan development, surveillance results, critical process capabilities, and insight to risk,” said Michael Shields, acting director of the Technical Directorate and executive director of Quality Assurance. “PDREP allows employees to work smarter, not harder.
“More importantly, none of the data captured locally at a user level will be lost when personnel go on leave, are transferred or retire. That corporate knowledge will no longer be lost. The transfer of historical records from user to user — whether part of the same team or part of a different operating unit — can now occur with a few clicks of the mouse.”
PDREP has other benefits. The agency has never had a Quality Assurance Letters of Instruction tool. These letters were sent by email from customers to individuals. But now, letters of instruction are added to this system, allowing visibility to all DCMA personnel and customers. DCMA data can be used by customers to improve contract language, QALIs, cost adjustments, and considerations for awarding contracts.
In addition, PDREP provides corrective action request information and linkage between prime contractors and subcontractors. The system will also auto-populate some CAR data. This linkage aids users with decision making by analyzing the data to determine whether the prime contractor has larger issues with passing along contract requirements.
“It also provides the capability to determine if the contractor has controls in place for verifying compliance,” said Shields. “Along with the linkage, auto-population of certain data reduces the amount of entering the same data over and over. This saves employees time in both writing corrective action requests and analyzing data for risk adjustments.”
Overall, PDREP drives better customer service.
“PDREP is a great resource for employees and supervisors,” Shields said. “DCMA uses PDREP data for value metrics, adjusting surveillance based on risk, data integrity checks, auditing and balancing workload. The change to a Department of Defense accessible system also benefits our partners and customers as illustrated by the increase in the number of DOD users with active accounts accessing our data in PDREP.”
PDREP tools currently provide more than 1,100 customers access to contractor performance data. This saves customers’ time by pulling their own ad-hoc reports without requesting a DCMA data call.
“This only scratches the surface of the PDREP modernization project,” Shields stated. “The surveillance planning application is currently running a pilot program for scheduling and documenting the execution of surveillance processes. Once completed, integration into all of PDREP applications will begin. After that, we will start connecting PDREP to other DCMA platforms. The possibilities are endless.”
Employees can learn more about the tool on DCMA 365 (log-in required).