Foreign Military Sales: Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) as a Mechanism for Building International Partnerships Capable of Securing the United States' Vital Interests

Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) has often been used in the public sector to make incremental process changes to improve efficiency and quality. This same approach could also be used in the DoD to help identify real-time improvement opportunities. This research will analyze if there is a benefit in utilizing a CPI Board (CPIB) to build customer relationships more effectively and improve timeliness and accuracy within the Foreign Military Sales (FMS), and ultimately better develop positive strategic partnerships between the U.S. and its allied partners and continue to maintain a strong industrial base. Accelerating the defense acquisition process to help get end items to the U.S.s end users, especially due to the ongoing war efforts in the world today has been a challenge. It is of great importance to recognize the need to help streamline and accelerate the defense acquisition process to ensure that our warfighters can receive critical end items especially in urgent times of need. The same governing principles to streamline the DoD acquisition process must therefore also flow to the FMS process. FMS is the U.S. Government's program for transferring defense articles, services, and training to our international partners and organizations. The U.S. Department of State oversees the FMS program, which is implemented by the U.S. DoD through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). These procurements provide several benefits to the United States' national security including creating built-in interoperability with allies and partners, lowering unit costs to the U.S. military, expanding regional influence, and maintaining the U.S.'s industrial base and war reserves during conflict (Hallman, 2020, Para 3).