National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Suppliers and Supply Chain

NASA is undertaking exploratory efforts concerning its suppliers and supply chain because 80% to 90% of its annual budget goes to procurement actions for goods and services.  This new emphasis by NASA is appropriate in view of the 2012 National Strategy on Global Supply Chain Security that includes supply chain disruption from natural disasters (such as extreme weather and climate events).  NASA’s exploratory efforts are in three areas:  (1) important (critical) goods and services, (2) strategic suppliers, (3) installation suppliers (electricity and water).  NASA has initially completed efforts on rocket fuel (as an important good) and has developed a proto-type process for investigating “important goods and services.”  This quasi-standardized process is an important aspect to the quality consistency of future studies, and is achieved through the use of standardized tables to collect information.   In the second effort area, NASA is exploring its strategic suppliers through standard approaches that have been reported in the literature.   In the third area, NASA is exploring local suppliers, especially in areas where “encroachment issues” that are climate related may become a future challenge (such as electricity and water).