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| July 2009
Welcome to The CTMA Connector, a monthly newsletter designed to provide news and ideas about the Commercial Technologies for Maintenance Activities (CTMA) program. The CTMA program is a joint Department of Defense/National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (DoD/NCMS) effort promoting collaborative technology development between industry and the DoD maintenance and repair facilities. This newsletter highlights ongoing projects, serves as a forum for promoting new project ideas, and provides other news of interest to the program. Our goal is to stimulate your participation and solicit your input. Feel free to submit items for the newsletter as well as any suggestions to make it more useful. More information about the program can be found at http://ctma.ncms.org/. To subscribe or unsubscribe to the CTMA Connector, send a message to listserv@listserv.ncms.org with “subscribe CTMANewsletter” or “unsubscribe CTMANewsletter” in the message body. We welcome the following companies into NCMS: Dassault Systemes Simulia Corp. (www.simulia.com) Dassault Systemes provides development and marketing of finite element analysis software, services and support. Engineered Performance Materials Company, LLC (www.epm-us.com) EPM is a manufacturer of non-ferrous nano material for a wide variety of applications. MAHLE Industries, Inc. (www.us.mahle.com) MAHLE provides R&D of internal combustion powercell unit designs, in particular connecting rod assemblies. Nimbis Services, Inc. (www.nimbisservices.com) Nimbis acts as a clearinghouse for buyers and sellers of Digital Analysis Computing (DAC) services. Nimbis provides pre-negotiated access to high performance computing services, software, and expertise from the leading computer time vendors, independent software vendors, and domain experts. Ontonix LLC (www.ontonix-usa.com) Ontonix is a software and services firm that develops OntoSpace, the Worlds first system which allows one to actually measure and manage the complexity of a business or a dynamic process. OntoSpace is an unusual and first-of-a-kind system which helps view Business Intelligence from a radically innovative perspective. Their technology not only shows how excessive complexity is the source of risk, it has enabled them to devise a new theory of risk. Spectro Incorporated (www.spectroinc.com) Spectro is a high technology company that specializes in instrumentation for machine condition monitoring based on oil and fuel analysis. Their primary customers are industrial and military organizations as well as laboratories that provide oil analysis services. Expedited Modernization Initiative Procedure (EMIP) The CTMA program is working with EMIP to offer project teams another process for technology deployment more broadly within DoD. According to their website, EMIP is designed to suggest improvements to the current and future fleet of tactical wheeled vehicles and other systems. EMIP seeks to identify industrys investments in proven, advanced, commercial technologies at the component, and subsystem levels, at a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7, or better. Their goal is to educate Government representatives about these technologies and to share their findings within the Program Executive Office for Combat Support & Combat Service Support (PEO CS&CSS), other Program Executive Offices, and other Services. EMIP provides both the Government and CTMA project teams another point of contact for addressing Industrys interest in presenting new Technologies. Two CTMA project teams, Automated Process and Inspection Guide, and 3FAST, recently presented to the EMIP program and we anticipate further DoD assistance in technology deployment. The next EMIP meeting is in mid-October and two other CTMA project teams will be tapped to present at that time. CTMA Project Completion: Integrating Sensors and Predictive Maintenance Systems with Performance Support Technology to Achieve Increased CH-53 Readiness and ReliabilityDoD Participants: PMA-261 (CH-53E Program Office); HMT 302 Marine Corps Air Station New River, NC; Fleet Readiness Center East; Fleet Readiness Center Southeast This CTMA project was designed to combine and maximize the benefits of two complementary maintenance technologies: the Goodrich Integrated Mechanical Diagnostic System (IMDS) and an Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) developed by REI Systems, Inc. The main goal of this project was to integrate the IMDS, a type of Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS), with an EPSS to provide CH-53E helicopter maintenance technicians with a seamless, end-to-end predictive, diagnostic and repair suite that will measurably increase the readiness and availability of the aircraft while potentially reducing or eliminating associated maintenance expenditures. The IMDS and EPSS were linked using a new open architecture Application Programming Interface (API) developed during this project. In March 2008, Marines at the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training (CNATT) Marine Unit (MARUNIT) schoolhouse in New River, North Carolina, participated in a preliminary software beta test to measure the efficacy of the EPSS for CH-53E fuel system troubleshooting. This software beta test was executed to determine if past EPSS test results from other Navy and Marine Corps aviation communities could be matched or replicated on the CH-53E aircraft, currently the most expensive aircraft to maintain in the Navy/Marine Corps fleet. The main parameter tested during this beta test was work speed: the time required to troubleshoot a CH-53E fueling system fault or gripe. Because the test population consisted of graduating aviation technician students and their instructors (as opposed to fielded Marines with varying levels of work experience), troubleshooting accuracy was not measured during this beta test. (Instructors were well versed in common CH-53E faults and their students just received recent training on common CH-53E faults, so this beta test could not accurately measure the impact of the EPSS on fault isolation accuracy rates.) All participants followed the correct troubleshooting paths to identify the source of the gripes. A survey form was distributed to solicit remarks and suggestions from the participants.Benefits Based upon the project results and on results of similar tests on other platforms, the use of condition-based maintenance (CBM) technology demonstrates the potential to significantly reduce maintenance time and improve troubleshooting accuracy (fewer removals of good parts). Currently, each CH-53E helicopter requires a staggering 400+ hours of maintenance for each flight-hour of operation. There are approximately 160 operational helicopters and CH-52 Program Office (PMA-261) spends roughly $512M per year on fleet maintenance. If only 3% reduction in maintenance costs was achieved through faster and more accurate troubleshooting this would represent a $15.3M annual cost avoidance, an extremely conservative estimate. Technology Transition Phase I of the project demonstrated technical feasibility of the EPSS by deploying the system on a small number of CH-53E platforms. Because of the success of this phase, PMA-261 has funded a broader deployment of this technology across the entire CH-53 platform. This deployment will further validate expected results. During this phase, other helicopter platforms will be pursued, including other services such as Corpus Christi Army Depot to participate as observers of the deployment and the results. It is then anticipated that deployment to Army helicopters would be advantageous. A third phase is anticipated, which would use the same methodologies as Phase II, but deploy the technology to aircraft platforms beyond helicopters. The NCMS contact is Lee Patch, leep@ncms.org, 734-995-4972. Attention DoD Personnel Do you have improvement funds that can be applied to technology transitioning or technology pilots at your facility? The CTMA program has a memorandum of understanding with the Army Contracting Center of Excellence to turn around MIPR’s within 30 days. What this means is that we can get your funds obligated in about 45 days within the construct of the CTMA program. Plus, in many cases, CTMA funds will be used to further leverage the technology transitioning effort. This is the last opportunity to take advantage of this opportunity for FY’09 by working with the NCMS program management staff or through Chuck Ryan at chuckr@ncms.org. SAVE THE DATE- C3A Conference: September 28-30, 2009: New Orleans, LA High Performance Computing was once reserved for national laboratories, universities, and government. But HPC is leaving the lab, invading business and manufacturing, as affordable high-speed computing becomes available to organizations of any size. Imagine access to tools that simulate your activities on a massive scale, taking the guesswork out of product design, manufacturing processes, business activities, prototyping, risk assessment, and much more. HPC is going to revolutionize the way business gets done and products get made. Come join us for an eye-opening conference that will introduce you to the potential of the HPC invasion, and how you can use it to compete in entirely new ways. For more information please visit http://www.ncms.org/c3a We appreciate your feedback. Please contact Chuck Ryan with suggestions or input on other topics that would be of interest to you in this newsletter. The CTMA Program is sponsored by the Department of Defense; the content of this newsletter does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the government; no official endorsement should be inferred. |
