CTMA Connector December 2012: DoD Maintenance Update

We welcome the following organizations into NCMS:

General Motors LLC (www.gm.com)

General Motors LLC is engaged in the development, manufacture and sale of cars and trucks.

Workforce Intelligence Network of Southeast Michigan (WIN) (www.win-semich.org)

WIN is a consortium of 7 Michigan Works! Agencies and 8 Community Colleges formed to create a comprehensive and cohesive talent system that provides regional employers with the talent they need for success.

Industrial Technology Institute, DBA Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center (MMTC) (www.mmtc.org)

MMTC provides small and medium sized manufacturers with operational assessment, process improvement training, mentoring services, website technical assistance and market diversification tactics.

NCMS/CTMA Technology Showcase at the Anniston Army Depot

At the request of the Anniston Army Depot, the date of the Showcase is being changed from 30 January until a later date to be determined.  Please continue to register for the event and we will inform you of the new date as soon as it is finalized.

More information and registration at:

http://www.ncms.org/index.php/programs/ctma/ctma-symposium/technology-showcase-anniston-army-depot-2013/#About

These showcase events in the past have received high accolades for their ability to target the Government’s technology needs, fill gaps and showcase members’ innovations.  It is a perfect opportunity that should not be missed!

Anniston Army Depot has identified the following as technologies of particular interest:

• Tracking material handling equipment
• Fastener removal
• Automated Inspection process
• Machine tool monitoring
• Automated painting
• Waterjet paint / coating removal
• Electrostatic paint booth
• Manufacturing execution systems
• Bridge scanning capabilities (combination of optical / laser)
• Plating modernization
• Housekeeping procedures for surface contaminates
• Camouflage projection
• Cold spray
• Friction stir welding
• Environmental
• Cadmium plating fasteners
• Supporting industrial base operations
• Reverse engineering capabilities
• Training
• Plating and finishing
• Painting and de-painting
• Robotic-assisted ergonomics

If you have any capabilities that can help Anniston Army Depot, your participation can help drive future technology initiatives.  The NCMS contact is Debbie Lilu, 734-995-7038, debral@ncms.org.

 CTMA Partners Meeting (formerly the CTMA Symposium) will be 9-10 April at the US Navy Yard, Washington, DC.

The Partners meeting will discuss methods for successfully implementing technology at maintenance facilities, and to identify other technology initiatives that impact weapon system readiness.  The meeting agenda includes RADM Mark Whitney outlining NAVSEA needs, discussions with deputy commanders regarding their technology requirements, and examinations of other DoD initiatives impacting the maintenance and repair community led by Adele Ratcliff, director of the DoD ManTech Program.

In addition, if you have a good idea for a quick hit technology insertion inititative, start preparing for the $100,000 Maintenance Challenge, continuing this year at the CTMA Partners Meeting.

Details and registration will be available on the NCMS website in early January.

John Johns awards Debbie Lilu with the Best Booth Plaque at 2012 Maintenance Symposium

Recently Completed CTMA Project: Smart Machines

Defense maintenance depots do not in general deploy systems for collecting, logging, and mining real-time status and health data from shop floor equipment assets. Many commercial industry entities have implemented these systems and have found that by using the insights gathered by mining and processing archived data they can:

• Gain a true picture of actual asset utilization which can then be used to guide continuous process improvement (CPI) projects and lean events.
• Perform Pareto analysis on production interruptions to identify and correct root causes.
• Recognize negative trends and correct them before they interrupt production.
• Gain better understanding of asset reliability which can guide a shift from time-based to reliability-centered maintenance (RCM).
• Add equipment health monitors such as vibration and heat plus environmental monitors such as ambient temperature and humidity and move toward condition-based maintenance (CBM).
• Optimize labor resource effectiveness.

Failure of depot maintenance equipment, as in commercial manufacturing, has bad, sometimes catastrophic consequences. In commercial manufacturing, the consequences are financial unless the failure causes human injury. In depot maintenance, the consequence is usually a delay in returning assets to service. If the asset is mission critical, consequences can include human injury or death. In either case, failure prevention is crucial. Preventive maintenance is the best way to avoid process interruption due to equipment failure.

Historically, maintenance on depot equipment has been performed on a scheduled basis. Schedule-based maintenance decreases the likelihood of process interruption due to equipment failure but may result in costly unnecessary maintenance. In recent years RCM has gained favor. In RCM, Mean-Time-To-Failure (MTTF) is determined from historic data and used to schedule pre­ventive maintenance accordingly. RCM reduces the possibility of unnecessary maintenance.

Single purpose, standalone condition monitoring systems are now beginning to appear in defense depots, the most common being standalone vibration monitoring systems implemented on major rotating equipment. Such single purpose systems use a variety of mechanisms to report impending or actual failure of bearings.  CBM is the latest technology to impact equipment maintenance. In CBM, embedded sensors monitor the condition of critical equipment components and a computer system is used to detect deterioration in performance or even impending failure. The systems calculate remaining life, thereby enabling decisions on when to schedule downtime for maintenance.

There is yet another type of system gaining favor with industry. These systems monitor process variables and environmental conditions to yield information on equipment asset health, utilization, process variation, and exception conditions. They are most useful for CPI. Such
a system was the focus of this initiative.

This CTMA effort installed Freedom eLOG at a total of nine pilot sites, three industry, five depots, and at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). Applications covered a broad variety of data sources – machine tools of various types and ages, injection molding, welding, heat treat, and even machines that lacked any kind of formal control system.

The DoD maintenance community pilots validated the lessons learned even though not
all pilots were well received and successful. Insights derived from the initial rubber com­pression mold pilot at RRAD played a role in helping RRAD manage a huge surge in remanufacturing of treaded vehicle demand driven by the wars in Southwest Asia. That success led to a production deployment on 51 machines in the Rubber Products Building.

The Smart Machines technology is a driver for improved equipment utilization and CPI. To estimate benefits, assume the system produces a relatively modest throughput improvement of 5%. Out of a year, that amounts to 104 hours or 13 days. The project benefit is then the value of increased production in those 13 days, conserva­tively estimated to be about $100K for RRAD Rubber Products.

In general, deployment can be expected to yield the following benefits:

• Availability:
  • 40% productivity improvement, based on results in industry.
  • Greater throughput will result in better parts availability.
• Cost:
  • Increased shop efficiency reduced non-productive time and its cost. Estimated benefit at RRAD Rubber Products Building is $100K but is application dependent and can be much greater.
• Reliability:
  • Healthy machines produced more reliable products.
• Cycle Time:
  • Awareness and analysis tools enabled improvements in asset utilization.
  • Improved asset utilization resulted in greater throughput and reduced cycle times.
  • Anticipated 10% increase in equipment utilization translates to 2.5% workload throughput increase and improved response to RESET needs.

The Smart Machine system is applicable to all DoD organic maintenance depots. The estimated value extended across all depots is $5M/year.

The NCMS contact is Tony Haynes, 734-995-4930, tonyh@ncms.org.

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. © 2012