An article in Bloomberg Businessweek( January 24,2011) analyzes a recent statement by President Obama to examine burdensome regulations.  Consider a few regulations and ponder their impact. The Department of Defense plans to rethink outsourcing of maintenance – now critical tasks ill be done in-house. If they are outsourced, the agency has to maintain control.  This is a significant departure from the move to “power-by-the-hour” type of performance based logistics contracts that better align manufacturer and user incentives.  How will this new direction impact uptime, cost and product designs ? But another regulation was welcomed by energy providers (such as Duke Energy) and environmentalists – a Federal cap and trade program. The reason – one rule across the country would be a lot simpler to manage than a hodge-podge of state level rules.  So how should the Federal government pick and choose which rules will help and which hurt the supply chain ? Should immediate employment impact trump long term design benefits ? How much regulation is “good” and helps the overall supply chain ?