Contracting World Turned Upside-Down: The Preproduction Evaluation Clause and its Affects on Traditional Risk Allocation Methods.

摘要

The U.S. Army Materiel Command developed the Preproduction Evaluation (PPE) clause in the late 1960s. The clause requires a contractor to review and correct specification deficiencies during the mass production of an end item. The Army believed that the clause would shift the risks of deficiencies in contract specifications to contractors and reduce the number of delays and change orders in initial production contracts. This analysis examines the Army's success in accomplishing those goals. It reviews typical risk allocation practices in Government contracting and discusses how the PPE clause has altered those practices. It also examines the validity of some of the contractors' complaints concerning the clause and its implementation.