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| October 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. Upcoming DoD Maintenance Symposium in Phoenix, October 26-29 Come visit us in Booth 333 where we are showcasing the CTMA program as well as four CTMA projects including Kinetic Spray Processing, Automated Process and Inspection Guide, Fast Field Fluid Analysis, and Electronic Performance Support Systems. The last two projects listed, along with the CTMA project Centralized Fleet Asset Management System will compete at the Great Ideas Session on Monday afternoon at 2:15 pm. A video produced by NCMS is also being featured at the Marine Corps booth (#425) highlighting the CTMA project “Sense and Respond”. If you are interested in this video capability, stop by our booth and talk with Chuck or Debbie. You are invited to the following NCMS/CTMA Events Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony at the Fleet Readiness Center East (Cherry Point), Wednesday, November 18, 2009 The CTMA project, Laser Coating Removal of Composite Helicopter Blades, has successfully installed the paint stripping unit at Cherry Point, which is certified for production use. We welcome people interested in seeing this unit work in production as we celebrate with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Cherry Point, North Carolina. The ribbon-cutting will include remarks by RDML Tim Matthews (COMFRC/AIR), Col Scott Loch (Commander FRC East), CAPT Stephen E. Iwanowicz (Commander, NUWC Division Keyport) as well as testimonies from the artisans from the paint stripping shop. Following the ceremony, attendees are invited on a tour of the FRC East facilities in the afternoon. The NCMS contact is Debbie Lilu, debral@ncms.org, 734-995-7038. Save the Date: 2010 CTMA Symposium “Achieve Technology Collaboration”, March 22-25, 2010. Location: The Clubs at Quantico, Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia. Expect to learn about the services technological needs, discuss the new technology roadmap now under development, and to review current CTMA project efforts in addition to tabletop displays and extensive networking opportunities. Stay tuned for more information. The NCMS contact is Debbie Lilu, debral@ncms.org, 734-995-7038.
Recently Completed CTMA Projects: Centralized Fleet Asset Management System (CFAMS) DoD Participants: Sierra Army Depot; Anniston Army Depot; Tobyhanna Army Depot; Red River Army Depot; Army Materiel Command G-6 The Centralized Fleet Asset Management System (CFAMS) is a wireless fleet management hardware and software solution designed to optimize depot operations (both re-manufacturing and supply), decrease maintenance cost, while improving equipment readiness, optimize fleet size, reduce vehicle and facility damage, and dramatically improve overall safety. The system accomplishes these functions through a highly effective integration of radio-frequency (RF) based industrialized computers installed on the vehicle with state-of-the-art software designed to collect literally thousands of discrete vehicle telemetry and operator utilization metrics. In essence, the CFAMS system allows the vehicle to operate independently, within management specified parameters, to automatically improve safe operations, while maximizing utilization. The software concurrently tracks operations and telemetry metrics, automatically generating up to 300 operations, or maintenance specific reports, as well as critical event alerts to ensure both audit trails are complete, and supervisors can take immediate action in case of emergencies. CFAMS was installed at Sierra Army Depot (SIAD), during the 2008-2009 pilot test, surpassing original expectations. The actual per vehicle savings were nearly 20% higher than initial projections, resulting in a return on investment of approximately 12 months. This results in a net present value return, within five years, of the fully implemented CFAMS at SIAD of up to $4,682,135. CFAMS is also a key component of a progressive CBM program, and Lean Logistics initiatives to improve productivity and reduce costs. Because CFAMS automatically captures motion hours, as well as movement with load data, the system enables changing to motion, or condition-based preventative maintenance. Employing CBM facilitates not only results in fewer preventative maintenance cycles, but also:
On the Lean Logistics side, the ability to track vehicle usage, as well as location, and discrete tasks such as travel with load, and route playback, facilitate task-level resource management analysis. Using this data for planning fleet reduction, fleet right-sizing, and/or accurate positioning, managers have the capability to apply the right number and type of vehicle assets at the right time and place in either the warehousing or production support environment. Overall, this allows the depot to essentially be more productive with both less equipment and dedicated operator personnel. CFAMS not only exceeded initial expectations in cost savings and features, but highlighted a critical need within the Department of Defense (DoD) to more effectively manage its industrial vehicle fleet and garner considerable savings never before imagined possible. More importantly, all of these cost avoidance savings were garnered while concurrently improving workplace safety and productivity. The NCMS contact is Debbie Lilu, debral@ncms.org, 734-995-7038. Tobyhanna Army Depot Technology Showcase was held in Mid-October At the Tobyhanna Army Depot, 46 companies displayed their technologies to the managers, engineers, and artisans throughout the depot. We expect several of the showcased technologies will be financially supported by the depot for transitioning into use, following the example of the Marine Corps Maintenance Center, Barstow and their technology showcase. We are currently working a venue for the next Showcase, which is tentatively scheduled for early February 2010.
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. |
