March 2013

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.

Navy Yard Technology Showcase Postponed

Due to the budgetary uncertainties within the federal government, we have decided to postpone the April 9th NCMS/CTMA Technology Showcase at the Navy Yard until later this year.  We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause to you. 

However:

Join us at the 2013 Annual CTMA Partners Meeting, May 21 through 23.

The CTMA Partners Meeting is a combination virtual, and networking event.  Live keynote addresses and panel discussions will be via video-conference with rebroadcast over the internet to anyone registering for the event.  Tune-in to the conference whenever you want. 

Industry and local DoD personnel are invited to join us at NCMS in Ann Arbor for the Partners Meeting.  Project teams will be showcased during the Meeting, and each team will have 30 minutes to present their technology for broadcast to participants throughout the sustainment community.  We are also planning a networking reception on May 21 and lunch on the 22nd.

The draft agenda can be found at: http://www.ncms.org/index.php/programs/ctma/ctma-symposium/ with registration to open soon.  Direct your questions to Debbie Lilu, debral@ncms.org.

2013 $100,000 CTMA Maintenance Challenge

Thanks to all the teams submitting concept papers to this years Maintenance Challenge.  Papers are currently being judged by the DoD evaluation team, and winners are expected to be announced in early April.  The winning team will also be featured at the Annual Partners Meeting.

New NCMS Project: Collective Minds – Avoidance of Maintenance Cost through Predictive Trending

Fleets of aerospace equipment are managed through carefully controlled supply chain processes. When any of the planning assumptions fail, for example, due to a new mission, a batch of out-of-spec parts or an ill-conceived maintenance procedure, an unexpected demand on maintenance and supply can develop, leading to increases in operating costs and reductions of equipment availability. Isolation of early warning signals of onset of such crises is critical to dealing with them proactively. Complexities of aerospace fleets make it particularly difficult for managers to recognize emerging patterns of systematic failures before they escalate. Often, only when availability is significantly affected, will attention be paid.

Systematic failures of components in man-made fleets bear an analogy to disease outbreaks among humans. The spread of an out-of-spec parts from a delivery in some ways is like a new virus entering a community. Often, healthcare providers remain unaware of the system-wide nature of a problem until relatively late in its progression. Fortunately, data mining and machine learning technology has been demonstrated to reliably generate early warnings of the advent of human epidemics by observing the operation of the health care system over time.

This project will begin to explore the hypothesis that similar mathematics has value in alerting to unusual patterns when monitoring health of fleets of the US Army’s helicopter fleets with the goal of seeing whether multi‐year cost avoidance can be achieved at the enterprise level. This will be done by identifying high value analyses and relevant demonstrations with the current Army Aviation data that have the ability to scale across the DoD and enable explanation of variances in reliability calculations and demand forecasting so that proactive cost‐reducing actions may be taken across DoD.

The NCMS contact is Tony Haynes, 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

February 2013

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.

The CTMA Annual Partners Meeting is now primarily a virtual event from May 21-23. The meeting will be broadcast to participants and will consist of three keynote speakers, the deputy commanders panel, a technology showcase event, and the DoD Joint Technology Exchange Group panel.  For those who can travel, NCMS will host the event and will be the site of the technology showcase.  Companies participating in the on-site showcase will also be given 20-30 minutes on-line to expose their technology to interested participants.  We will start at 1300 on 21 May, and conclude at 1200 on 23 May.  We are in the midst of developing the virtual capability, and registration for the event will be available soon. Please plan on participating in the exciting new virtual event!

Technology Showcase at US Navy Yard, Washington D.C.  We are going to salvage a vestige of the original Partners Meeting at the Navy Yard by holding our CTMA Technology Showcase on-site at the Navy Yard on Tuesday, April 9.  All NCMS member companies are invited to the Navy Yard to participate at the tabletop event and present your capabilities to the engineers and managers located at the Navy Yard.  Stay tuned for event updates.

Deadline is March 8 to enter the 2013 $100,000 NCMS/OSD Maintenance Challenge:

We are looking for new CTMA project ideas with strong impacts on the DoD maintenance community.  Ideas submitted will be reviewed by a panel of judges and the winning team will receive $100,000 as part of a CTMA project.  Last year, several of the projects submitted to the Maintenance Challenge were funded by the CTMA program.

Information can be found at:

http://www.ncms.org/index.php/programs/ctma/ctma-symposium/the-2013-ncmsosd-maintenance-technology-challenge/

CTMA Project Highlight: Human Augmentation System (HAS) Technology

This project conducted a productivity assessment to evaluate the benefits of applying a Human Augmentation System (HAS) to assist workers as they used a heat induction tool to remove special hull treatment (SHT) from a submarine’s exterior. The study addressed both quantitative measures of productivity (residue removal rate) and qualitative measures of productivity (worker fatigue, ergonomics, etc.). The HAS technology is designed to carry the weight of heavy tools, allowing the worker to accomplish tasks with higher quality and less fatigue.

A HAS productivity evaluation was successfully conducted at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) & Intermediate Maintenance Facility (IMF). Five test subjects used a low heat induction tool to remove SHT tiles and SHT tile residue from various locations on a submarine hull. The workers performed this task both non-augmented and with a HAS. The evaluation had four primary objectives:

1. Quantitatively determine how the HAS impacts productivity for a work team that is performing a heat induction task.
2. Quantitatively determine how the HAS impacts productivity for an individual worker that is performing a heat induction task.
3. Qualitatively evaluate how the HAS impacts worker injury and fatigue.
4. Evaluate HAS reliability during a field trial to determine if the it can be effectively deployed in the rugged shipyard environment.

The evaluation produced compelling results:

1. The HAS enabled a single worker to continuously employ the heat induction tool with the assistance of one (1) other worker. In the current process a three (3) worker team is required to perform the same task. The testing indicates that HAS usage may reduce the necessary team size from three (3) to two (2), a 50% productivity improvement.
2. Qualitative data that suggests HAS improves worker ergonomics and significantly reduces worker fatigue.
3. The HAS performed effectively in a wide array of work environments (unstable footing, loose impediments, rain, wind, cold, etc.).

Additionally, test participant feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Test participants were able to quickly acclimate to the system, maneuver through the entire shipyard while wearing the system, and implement the system in their typical activities. Test participants expressed a desire to implement the HAS into some aspect of their standard work.

This study proved that using human augmentation to accomplish shipyard tasks involving heavy tools can improve productivity while mitigating a significant cause of worker injury. Both the improvement in productivity and the reduction in worker injury should result in cost savings.

The HAS technology is a fundamental redefinition of the relationship between the worker and the tool, where the physical strength of the worker is no longer a limiting factor for work assignment.  The cost benefit using the HAS allows PSNS to reduce required crew size for from three to two, equating to a cost saving of $104K per year for Heat Induction Tool applications. These savings are increased as the number of HAS are deployed and utilized on SHT removal projects.

” HAS technology is a fundamental redefinition of the relationship between the worker and the tool where the physical strength of the worker is no longer a factor.” CAPT Williamson, PSNS CO

Industrial Human Augmentation System (iHAS)

• Increases productivity & quality of work, with reduced injuries

zeroG ^® – Exoskeletal Arm Systems: TRL 9

• Allows operators to use heavy tools as if weightless
• Supports the tool through a wide range of motion
• Requires no power
• Can reduce vibration transmission to operator
• Single arm stabilize tools up to 40 lbs

MANTIS^TM- Lower Body Exoskeleton: TRL 7

• Provides critical mobility platform
• Transfers loads through structure to the ground
• Anthropomorphic design maintains operator flexibility
• No power, electronics, actuation required
• Simple to operate and minimal training required

Project Partners

• U.S. Navy- PSNS & IMF
• U.S. Navy- Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division
• Lockheed Martin
• Equipois
• NCMS

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. © 2013

January 2013

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.

Given the recent severe DoD travel restrictions, we are making the following changes to the NCMS/CTMA networking events:

The CTMA Annual Partners Meeting, formerly the CTMA Symposium, will be primarily a virtual event, and will be held May 21-23.  The meeting will be broadcast to participants and will consist of three keynote speakers, the deputy commanders panel, a technology showcase event, and the DoD Joint Technology Exchange Group panel.  For those who can travel, NCMS will host the event and will be the site of the technology showcase.  We will start at 1300 on 21 May, and conclude at 1200 on 23 May.  Obviously we are working out the details, and will keep you informed. Please plan on participating in the exciting new virtual event!

Technology Showcase at US Navy Yard, Washington D.C.: One popular aspect of the annual CTMA Annual Partners Meeting has been technology tabletop displays, and the Annual Partners Meeting now going virtual this year, we are going to have the Technology Showcase event at the Navy Yard on Tuesday, 9 April.  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. All NCMS member companies are invited to the Navy Yard to participate at the tabletop event and present your capabilities to the engineers and managers located at the Navy Yard.  Again, stay tuned for event updates.

$100,000 NCMS/OSD Maintenance Challenge:

Now that the Annual Partners Meeting is going virtual, we are introducing the 2nd Annual NCMS/OSD Maintenance Challenge as a separate event.  We are looking for new CTMA project ideas with strong impacts on the DoD maintenance community.  Ideas submitted will be reviewed by a panel of judges and the winning team will receive $100,000 as part of a CTMA project.

Details of the Challenge:

• All NCMS members are eligible to participate.
• Submit concept paper to Chuck Ryan, NCMS (chuckr@ncms.org)
• Due date: March 8, 2013 (by 5 pm Eastern time)

Not yet a member of NCMS? Membership applications can be found here.

Concept Paper format (not to exceed 10 pages)

1. Title
2. Statement of problem
3. Proposed solution
4. Deliverables (A report alone is not sufficient; projects are to deliver a product or service to the participating maintenance activity(ies). Preferably, such deliverables hold promise as problem solutions for other like maintenance activities throughout DoD.)
5. Budget summary:
   • CTMA funds: $100K
   • Cost share from team:
   • Total project cost:
6. Benefits summary:
   • Statement of the quantifiable benefits that are expected to be gained by DoD as a result of this project (an ROI for the project).
   • Statement of the performance measurements that are going to be undertaken during the course of the project.
   • Benefits to industry.
7. Anticipated Participants (DoD maintenance activities, Industry Partners, other government facilities or academic institutions).

A CTMA panel that will include technology leaders from each of the services will down select to five finalists

•   Selection criteria –
  •   Overall benefit
  •   IOC within twelve months
  •   Strength of team/buy-in
  •   Level of innovation

• Five finalists will be down selected and given 15 minutes to present their project idea via virtual meeting to the panel of judges
• The judges will select a winner and runner-up
• Technical progress / status will be reported to Senior Sustainment Leaders quarterly and during Maintenance Enterprise Steering Committee and Depot Commanders Peer to Peer meetings.

Information can be found at:

http://www.ncms.org/index.php/programs/ctma/ctma-symposium/the-2013-ncmsosd-maintenance-technology-challenge/

Other Technology Showcases:

NCMS is currently working with several DoD depots for scheduling Technology Showcases at their facilities.  In addition to the above event at the Navy Yard, we are trying to hold two more events during 2013.

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. © 2013

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

We welcome the following organizations into NCMS:

Equipois, Inc. (www.equipoisinc.com)

Equipois is dedicated to the mission of utilizing its patented exoskeletal arm technology to reduce injuries, increase productivity, and decrease costs in the workplace. Their proprietary technology enables and enhances the most versatile tools in existence – human hands guided by the human mind. The goal: eliminating the costly and widespread injuries caused by exertion, repetition and strain.

ThinGap, LLC (www.thingap.com)

ThinGap offers light and highly powerful motors for industry, unmanned platforms and robotics.  They replace the traditional iron core motors with an ironless composite stator and unique new rotor design offering tremendous power and torque density.

PARC (www.parc.com)

Parc, a Xerox company, is in the business of Breakthroughs. Practicing open innovation, they provide custom R&D services, technology, expertise, best practices and intellectual property to Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, start-ups and government agencies and partners.

Terascala, Inc. (www.terascala.com)

Terascala storage appliances accelerate data throughput in big data, high performance enterprise computing environments. Terascala delivers over tens of GBs of aggregate read/write throughput to solve the 1GB/second bottleneck that is common with existing NFS-based storage solutions. Available from Dell, NetApp and EMC, Terascala appliances work alongside primary storage systems to provide on-demand fast data storage for problematic big data/fast data applications.

News from DoD Maintenance Symposium, 12-16 November, Grand Rapids, MI

• NCMS/CTMA Booth wins award for best large booth for the third time in four years.  Projects featured at the booth included Imaginestics Americas Voice, Perfect Point e-drill, Spectro Fluid Analyzer, Ecylpse Wiring Integrity, Curtis-Wright Laser Peening of Aircraft Skins, and the world premier of the Lockheed/Equipois Human Augmentation System.
• NCMS member company, MDS Coating Technologies Corporation, won the best booth in the smaller booth category.  They were highlighting their CTMA project work on erosion/corrosion resistant coatings for turbine engine blades.
• The CTMA project, Intermittent Fault Detection Isolation System (IFDIS) won the Best Ideas competition.  Their work was presented by Ken Anderson of Universal Synaptics.

Plan now for the NCMS/CTMA Technology Showcase

30 January 2013 at the Anniston Army Depot

More information and registration at:

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

NCMS members are invited to participate in this event.  Table top displays will be set up in the new transmission facility on the Depot.  As an all-day event, this is a great opportunity for members to display their technologies to management, engineers and artisans at Anniston.  The event begins at 8:00 a.m. (unloading / set-up begins at 7:10 a.m.) and will conclude at 4:00 p.m.  A networking reception will immediately follow the event.

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

Not an NCMS member yet?  Contact Alissa Roath, NCMS membership chair, alissar@ncms.org, 734-995-3457.

Also Plan to Participate in the 2013 CTMA Symposium

8-10 April, US Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.

Start preparing for the $100,000 Maintenance Challenge, continuing this year at the CTMA Symposium.  This year we will be looking for quick-hitting project ideas with technology deployment at a DoD maintenance facility within 4 months.  In addition, we will be featuring a deputy commanders panel outlining current technology needs, as well as a panel moderated by Adele Ratcliff with the service laboratories showcasing projects addressing sustainment needs.

Recently Completed CTMA Project: Automated Process and Inspection Guide

Automated Process & Inspection Guide (AP&IG) Phase I standardized both the inspection data and the inspections process for depot maintenance facilities. It utilized Aspire Solutions, Inc (ASI) commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software application combined with COTS ultra-mobile PC technology to guide the user through the inspection process (improve accuracy) and standardize the defect data (enhance analysis capabilities). The project was unique in that it involved two pilots. The first was at Red River Army Depot (RRAD) involving the high mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV) ground vehicle. The second was at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC) involving the C/KC-135 aircraft. These environments are
very diverse and highlighted the tool’s configurability.

The RRAD pilot focused on the HMMWV road test. This inspection involved actually driving the vehicle to ensure functional operation. The pilot had two key goals:

• Standardize the defect data – Because of the high volume of HMMWV produced (28 to 32 per day), it was critical to analyze the defect data to ensure an issue was not missed. Missing an issue for a week could result in 150 HMMWVs that required full re-inspection.
• Decrease work – Because of the volume, rework was done during overtime hours making it very expensive.

The pilot produced strong bottomline results that helped inspect/repair the HMMWV faster and reduce cost while improving the overall quality with fewer personnel required.

The RRAD pilot on the HMMWV yielded substantial savings:

• Manpower reduction 73%
• Inspection time decreased 29%
• Reporting time reduced 96%
• Inspector training time down 80%.

It produced an estimated savings of over $2.3Mannually.

The OC-ALC pilot focused on the C/KC-135 inspection dock. This inspection reviewed the entire aircraft for defects once the plane had been stripped of paint and key access panels were removed. Because of the scale of the aircraft, the pilot focused on the leading edge wing since it was a problem area. The pilot had two keys goals:

• Capture head knowledge – Because of the turnover/retirement in staff, finding and training inspectors was a challenge. Due to the complexity of the aircraft, the training lead-time was 6 months and there was a shortage of experienced personnel to perform the training.
• Decrease inspection time – Reduce the amount of time spent in inspections without impact accuracy to enable more true maintenance time on the aircraft.

The OC-ALC pilot on the C/KC-135 produced significant savings:

• Manpower reduction 29%
• Inspection time decreased 35%
• Reporting time reduced 94%
• Inspector training time down 80%
• Test flights decreased 42%.

This produced an estimated savings of over $3.9Mannually.

The NCMS contact is Debbie Lilu, debral@ncms.org, 734-995-7038

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

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 organizations into NCMS:

One Network Enterprises, Inc. (www.onenetwork.com)

One Network provides planning, execution and business intelligence applications build on a federated cloud computing platform.

Anglicotech, LLC. (www.anglicotech.com)

Anglicotech is a veteran-owned small business, specializing in Organizational Change Management and Enterprise Information Technology Implementation and Services. With a dedicated team of subject matter experts and experienced consultants, Anglicotech is committed to providing innovative solutions to the most complex problems by devising all-encompassing plans that address the tactical, operational and strategic levels.

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) (www.michigan.gov/deq)

MDEQ provides compliance assistance, pollution prevention and sustainability resources as well as partnership building.

SAVE THE DATE: 2013 CTMA Symposium– Fast Track Collaboration

8-10 April, 2013 at the MWR Conference Center, US Navy Yard, Washington, DC.

Agenda and registration available early 2013.

Visit NCMS/CTMA at Booth #707 at the 2012 Defense Maintenance Symposium, 13-16 November in beautiful Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Vote us best booth again where we will be showcasing five of our member companies and their capabilities including:

• Eclypse International
• Spectro, Inc
• Imaginestics, LLC
• PerfectPoint
• Curtiss Wright Corporation

Register for the Symposium at http://www.sae.org/events/dod/registration.htm.

SAVE ANOTHER DATE: NCMS/CTMA Technology Showcase

30 January 2013 – Anniston Army Depot, Anniston, Alabama

Stay tuned for details.

New CTMA Projects:

Contractor Property Management for Maintenance

As DoD Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) continues to evolve, more of the maintenance activities traditionally performed by operating forces are being transferred to in-theater contractors. To successfully perform these missions, Government Furnished Property (GFP) is frequently provided to contractors in order to perform OCO tasks; however, the US Government currently has no visibility of the items in theater that are brought in by contractors and has limited visibility of GFP provided in-theater in support of maintenance operations.

Interim Policy Directive #12-07 issued by CENTCOM requires contractors to provide visibility of large items moving into and out of Afghanistan whether contractor owned or government owned under the control of the contractor. Additionally, to improve OCO visibility, DoD has recently published regulations within the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to govern these processes. Regulations require that the Services utilize the Synchronized Pre-deployment and Operational Tracker, (SPOT) to track GFP to Contractors. Regulation compliance is crucial to maintaining effective property management, enhance fiscal accountability and ensure adherence to contractual obligations by both the Government and the Contractor/Entity.

This CTMA project will develop or enhance those processes necessary to help ensure the Marine Corps commitment to policy compliance. Project objectives will enhance visibility of relevant Government and contractor property to Government stakeholders and provide the oversight required for equipment under contractor control subject to in-theater/out of theater transfers.

For additional project information, contact Jeff Walker at jeffw@ncms.org, 360-782-1370

Coalition Logistics Interoperability (CLI) Joint Logistics Integration

Traditional execution of logistical support is focused on supportability at the individual service component level. Typical of this strategy is a significant redundancy of parts stocks, consumable inventory, and maintenance capability, commonly referred to as the “Iron Mountain”. The DoD has received the mandate to leverage existing and new capabilities in a joint environment, in order to pool and share sustainment resources between services. To this end, the CTMA program has supported the DoD in a series of Sense and Respond Logistics (S&RL) demonstrations, technical development initiatives and spiraling technology efforts focused on the investigation and development of the necessary tools required to successfully realize this mandate. To date, several key technologies have been developed by Government agencies and various commercial enterprises which enable more efficient and effective sustainability efforts. A basic proof of concept was achieved at the ExLog War Game in Quantico, Virginia in June 2012.

The objective of this CTMA project is to build from the success of previous project work and identify means by which the joint services may comply with DoD/Service policy, leverage IUID data, reduce maintenance costs, reduce supply costs, improve total life cycle system management, and gain joint service maintenance interoperability without sacrificing weapon system reliability or readiness.

For additional project information, contact Jeff Walker at jeffw@ncms.org, 360-782-1370

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

We welcome the following organizations into NCMS:

Tracen Technologies, Inc. (www.tracen.com)

Tracen is a technology products and services company specializing in integrated mobile and web technology solutions. Tracen’s flagship product, COMMANDmobile®, is a web based integrated product suite featuring mobile data collection, intelligent dispatching and role based security.

Troika Solutions, LLC (www.troikasol.com)

Troika is a veteran-owned small business with over 90-years of senior Marine Corps and DoD experience. Troika has been on the cutting edge of military system lifecycle management including requirements development, logistics and acquisition strategy analysis and implementation, and system fielding. From analyses to subject matter expert support, Troika combines strategy with an understanding of technology and innovation to deliver successful results.

Come Visit NCMS/CTMAat the 2012 Defense Maintenance Symposium, 13-16 November in beautiful Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Vote us best booth again where we will be showcasing five of our member companies and their capabilities including:

• Eclypse International
• Spectro, Inc
• Imaginestics, LLC
• PerfectPoint
• Curtiss Wright Corporation

Completed Project:  Implementation of Predictive Modeling in Support of USMC Systems Command – Product Group Nine (PG 09)

As platforms age, failures occur and must be handled by the maintenance processes. These events drive requirements for repair parts, placing demand on the supply system. For example, if the fleet has a surge in operations, the number of failures, maintenance events, and required repair parts likewise increase. If these requirements are not met, scheduled operations may not be met.

Repairs and replacements at the operational and intermediate levels for most components are handled internally by the United States Marine Corps (USMC); a limited number of secondary repairable items (SECREPS) are identified and contracted logistics support (CLS) programs are put into place for repair and return of unservice­able SECREPS.

The Clockwork Solutions, Inc.’s Total Life Cycle Management Assessment Tool (TLCM-AT) simulation model takes all of these rules into consideration. TLCM-AT was used to run “what if” scenarios on maintenance, logistics, policies, removal of parts for repair; and spare consumption. Analyses help to ensure that the forecasted project returns an investment over time in terms of readiness and costs. More detail is provided in Section 2.1 and Appendix A.

The TLCM-AT baseline model served as a starting point for scenario development, and
is essentially a snapshot of the current com­position, disposition and state of the fleet
(Section 2.2). This included the work break­down structure and configuration of each individual Medium Tactical Vehicle Replace­ment (MTVR), any spare parts on-hand or soon to be delivered, the current age and mileage of each vehicle and component, and the current status (functional or deadlined) of each vehicle and component. The outcome of this analysis showed that armored MTVRs performed worse across all selected metrics than unarmored, most pronounced for vehicles in-theatre, and worsening over time.

In the future, further analysis can be applied to develop provisioning plans to minimize delay to repair or replace components. For example, follow-on analysis can answer the questions:

• How can provisioning strategy improve availability of armored MTVRs?
• What is the best balance of cost and logistics performance in provisioning to support armored MTVRs?
• How can provisioning be applied to deliver more consistent logistics performance in the armored MTVR fleet?

Global Combat Support System-Marine Corps (GCSS-MC) requirements stemmed from supply difficulties experienced during Operation Iraqi Freedom. A faulty network led to front-line Warfighters being unable to update request information and order supplies, resulting in Marine supply erring on the side of safety and sending above and beyond front-line require­ments, resulting in overage of front-line inventory.

GCSS-MC decreases MTVR maintenance customer wait time and the proportion of maintainers’ time spent on administrative tasks. Fewer adminis­trative hours gives the GCSS-MC maintenance process more flexibility to cope with a surge in demand.

During work conducted by Clockwork Solutions, Inc. (CSI) to assist in the subset of sustainment block planning encompassing repair parts, a requirement to explore cases where Class IX block performance may be improved was demonstrated.  The work also highlights issues with Marine Corps data correlation. Specifically, technical manuals do not match Item Applications (Item Apps) data. This hinders employment of modeling and simulation tools to provide insight into the multiple future possibilities the MPF, or any Marine Corps element, may face. It is likely the development of more models to analyze Class IX will reveal more areas to improve materiel availability (Ma) through better sparing strategies.

The USMC Systems Command, Product Group 09 (PG09), Operational Force Systems (OFS) requires the use of the predictive life cycle modeling of Marine Corps ground weapon systems, as well as professional modeling and consulting support, to support various life cycle and product support analyses. Through this project, models previously developed with the TLCM-AT, as well as new system models were applied to support predictive analysis for Marine Corps Systems Command, and other Marine Corps agencies that require the use of predictive modeling.

Comprehensive life cycle scenario analysis will help the Program Managers, Life Cycle Logisticians, and leaders at the Enterprise level more clearly articulate Table of Authorized Materiel Control Numbers (TAMCNs) specific supportability requirements as they relate to system performance over time, to include: cost, operational availability, materiel availability and reliability.

Benefits

Predictive life cycle modeling of weapons systems results in predictive analysis/modeling that directly leads to:

• Enhanced supportability requirements, increasing availability of parts to the Warfighter; and reducing delay and cost by ensuring materiel availability/reliability.
• Determination that incentives for early delivery of parts have a greater impact than penalties for late delivery of parts.
• Each MTVR being a “collection of Line Replaceable Units,” the Performance Based Logistics (PBL) contract’s optimization of materiel availability at affordable cost expands service and readiness for the Warfighter.
• TLCM-AT model directly reflects the composition and disposition of the entire MTVR fleet, with its consideration of all vehicle characteristics, including date placed into service, operational use tempo, and known miles driven per year.

The primary benefits of implementing GCSS-MC include two thirds fewer required man-hours for maintainer’s administrative duties, and a 25% decrease in average Customer Wait Time (CWT) – a savings of almost 20 days:

• Free hours from administrative duties afford the GCSS-MC Maintenance process more flexibility to absorb increases in demand while continuing acceptable service levels.
• Additional benefits of GCSS-MC include increased efficiency measured by fewer averge MTVRs in maintenance at any random time.

Decreased shipping times and parts delay improve CWT but also increase maintainer utilization. GCSS-MC puts Maintenance in a better position for these changes by reducing manpower requirements from other administrative sources.

GCSS-MC provides web-based technology for Marines to access and update near real-time information from any location or time. GCSS-MC combines data from maintenance, supply, and finance into a single, secure system to improve logistics, support, and warfighting capabilities.

Low Ma was observed in packages using current Class IX sparing levels. Risk-based sparing packages can be increase Ma by as much as 50%. Savings are represented as spare platforms that need to be acquired to achieve an average of 95% Ma over the first 30 days with the current Class IX blocks (Table 1).

Table 1. Summary of Results in Terms of Ma Gain (increase in platform
availability) and Cost of Repair Part Inventory

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

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 organization into NCMS:

Whitney, Bradley & Brown, Inc. (http://wbbinc.com/)

A management consulting firm providing unique, creative and innovative products to both government and commercial sectors of the Defense and Federal industries.

SAVE THE DATE: 2013 CTMA Symposium – Fast Track Collaboration

8-10 April, 2013 in the Washington, DC area.  Plan to participate.

Come Visit NCMS/CTMA at the 2012 Defense Maintenance Symposium, 13-16 November in beautiful Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Vote us best booth again where we will be showcasing five of our member companies and their capabilities including:

• Eclypse International
• Spectro, Inc
• Imaginestics, LLC
• PerfectPoint
• Curtiss Wright Corporation

New CTMA Project: Joint Test Protocol for Gas Turbine Engine Materials

A bench level joint test protocol to accurately recreate hot section wear, plugging, glazing, and Calcium-Magnesium-Alumino-Silicate (CMAS) formation on turbine engine components does not exist.

This project will design a CMAS-forming sand and dust fine media which will ultimately be used to aggressively screen low performing components/protective systems and replicate degradation similar to the most problematic dusts on ingestion into an operating gas turbine engine in the SWA theater of operations. Assorted synthetic and natural sands and dusts used in typical erosion tests do not produce the effects observed in engines and components returned from the field.

Requirements of the test sand includes:

• The particle sizes of the dust will need to be small enough to bypass the particle separators, and collect in eddy spots.
• The dust composition will also need to react chemically and thermally on heating to produce CMAS deposition that chemically attacks standard thermal barrier coatings, thereby exposing base metal to high temperatures and negatively affecting blade aerodynamics.
• The material must be Continental United States (CONUS) sourced in amounts that are useful for DoD bench level and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) full-scale engine test purposes.

The NCMS contact is Debbie Lilu, debral@ncms.org,

CTMA Project Completion: Inspection and Repair Preparation Cell (IRPC)

IRPC represents a direct response to reducing sustainment cost by increasing the availability and reliability of critical composite structures through replacement of artisan dependent inspection and repair operations with computer-based technology. The current manual practice includes tap testing as the detection method, manual scarfing to remove the defect, and manual patch preparation. These activities all contribute elements of inaccuracy and waste.

Five NCMS industry partners teamed with eight Department of Defense (DoD) and federal organizations to identify and demonstrate a suite of integrated technologies to achieve the goal of streamlining the repair process as well as intro­duce elements of consistency and high quality.

The baseline artifact selected for evaluation of the technologies was the C-130 Radome although the technique can be applied to new aircraft program materials to identify manu­facturing defects as well as structures being refurbished. Defects include delamination, physical damage, and presence of moisture. Computer numerically controlled (CNC) motion techniques coupled with optical scanning are used to establish a geometric data base tied to a reference coordinate system for the specific structure being evaluated. Shearography, being a global non-destructive inspection (NDI) tech­nology, is then used to identify suspect areas within the structure for further evaluation. Using the reference coordinate system as a guide, the suspect areas are further inspected using more probing terahertz NDI technology to establish defect types, boundaries, and depth of the defects. The two step evaluation technique results in high definition defect data in an acceptable elapsed time. The data is overlaid onto the Radome surface using a laser projection system for visual identification of defect areas.

The IRPC when fully integrated will use CNC technology to automatically scarf defect areas, cut appropriately shaped repair patch materials, and guide the repair technician in the repair process. Benefits are in the form of consistency of repair, cost reduction, lead time reduction, and retention of structure historical data. While the fully integrated IRPC will maximize the benefits obtained, the individual technologies will provide immediate benefits. Downscaled versions of the IRPC can be implemented in a building block fashion and is presented as an alternative transition path.

The primary objective of the IRPC Phase I project was to evaluate and demonstrate the enabling technologies required to achieve the vision of an automated inspection and repair cell for composite structures (Figure 1). The C-130 Radome was selected to serve as the basis for the evaluation.

The project concluded with a successful demonstration of applicable technologies resulting in the machine tool based removal of composite material at controlled depths to the single ply level of accuracy. This demonstration led to the development of a concept for the fully implemented IRPC (Figure 2).

NDI techniques were evaluated for the identification of defects in Radome type structures. Evaluation has shown that the most appropriate implementation of the IRPC concept will use three levels of technology. The sequential use of various technologies

Figure 1. Enabling Technologies

Figure 2. Fully Integrated System

will provide the best characterization of defects in the least possible time:

• Scan to provide geometric data in an electronic file.
• Scan to identify areas of interest where there is a high likelihood of surface and/or sub-surface defects.
• Detail scan areas of interest to finalize characterization of defects.

Multiple technologies were evaluated at each level. Downselection led to the identification of the most appropriate technology for each level. The Level 1 digitizing technology was identified as the T-Scan laser scanning technique from Steinbichler. The Level 2 technology for global defect area identifica­tion was identified as shearography from Steinbichler. The Level 3 technology for local defect characterization was identified as terahertz scanning from Picometrix.

The need for a standard test panel with known defects to properly evaluate and downselect from the technologies for finite defect recog­nition was identified. Both single layer and dual layer standard test panels were designed for this purpose and manufactured for use within the project.

A technology and associated hardware from Moister Register for identification of moisture in the composite structure that could be seamlessly integrated into the IRPC was identified and demonstrated (Figure 3).

The IRPC concept includes operator intervention for tasks where automation is either impractical or simply more effectively performed manually. Laser projection was identified as a technology that could be integrated into the IRPC to display results to operators on the Radome surface and serve to control and validate the manual operations. LASERGUIDE from Assembly Guidance Systems was selected as this technology. Due to its immediate application potential a LASERGUIDE unit was demonstrated. Basic training in use of the unit has been provided to Warner Robins ALC with the goal to implement the system into existing operations.

Exposure to the IRPC concept has been broadened to include both commercial and military potential users. Many of these new potential users have participated regularly in the weekly teleconferences. Active partici­pation in the form of identification of broader requirements to meet industry repair needs has been provided by these new participants making the IRPC concept more universally applicable. The IRPC project through this process has spawned an ongoing activity in composite repair, the Consortium for Im­proving/Integrating Advanced Composites Processes (CIACP) led by the GFM organization.

Critical to achieving the vision of the IRPC was the ability for the various technologies to work in an integrated fashion. While much software development will be required to achieve

Figure 3. Identifying Moisture

integration in an automated sense, the final demonstration made by GFM showed that functionally the separate technologies could work in harmony. Further, the notion of a machine tool based coordinate system enables the individual technologies to work sequentially in a seamless fashion on a once-tooled pallet platform.

The benefits realized by the implementation of the IRPC are many. Several of these benefits relate to the overall impact of supply chain issues. Regarding Radomes in general among the most prominent qualitative benefits are:

• Improved repair consistency and precision. The IRPC being a mechanized versus manual repair will perform the repair process against well defined defects in the same way each time.
• The Radomes have a typical long service life and are serialized assets within the defense supply chain system. The IRPC captures contour and historical repair data in digital form. This historical data can be easily stored and accessed for future reference.
• The historical data can be used to plan and guide future repairs as well as expanding the data base functionality to include records of field repairs.
• Precision defect definition and removal provides accurate data for patch prepara­tion increasing material utilization.
• Application of LASERGUIDE system provides technicians with instructions for accurately placing patches and proper sequence for repair.

The NCMS contact is  Bill Waddell, wwadd49648@aol.com.

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

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 organizations into NCMS:

KALO, LLC

KALO, LLC is a DoD marketing & technical consulting company that provides subject matter expertise in laboratory projects, contracting, program management, logistics support, requirements generation, ITAR, SOCOM, G-2 ISR, etc…

University of Michigan (www.umich.edu)

The University of Michigan is a world class research university.

Macro USA Corporation (www.macrousa.com)

MacroUSA Corp. specializes in Unmanned Systems, MOUT Systems, and Safety, Surveillance and Inspection Systems with a vision to approach each project with creativity, revolutionary designs and cutting edge engineering. With efforts aimed at creating superior, more compact, and cost effective products than what is currently available.

New CTMA Project Opportunities:

Coalition Logistics Interoperability

Traditional execution of maintenance and logistical support is focused on supportability as a standalone service with some interaction at the DoD joint level. Typical of this strategy is a significant redundancy of parts stocks, consumable inventory, and maintenance capability, commonly referred to as the “Iron Mountain”. Ironically a significant number of repair and support items are common across the spectrum of Warfighters. Unfortunately, to date there does not exist a simple means to share and support common items in a joint or coalition environment. Significant cost in terms of transport, sustainment, support and redeployment is incurred by the different cooperating elements without consideration of economies of scale for sharable support items that could be obtained. In an era of limited resources, leveraging common capabilities to execute operations is a desired end state.

The objectives of this work is to become compliant with DoD/Service policy, leverage IUID data, reduce maintenance costs, reduce supply costs, improve TLCSM, and gain Joint/Coalition interoperability.  The NCMS contact is Debbie Lilu, debral@ncms.org.

Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Warfighter Maintenance and Implementation and Operations Support

Operations in OIF and current operations in OEF have identified several deficiencies in Material Management, Equipment Accountability/ Visibility, Distribution Visibility and Material Readiness. In addition, records tracking of maintenance activities has also been insufficient. These deficiencies have had a negative impact on the DoD’s ability to sustain current warfighter material requirements and capabilities. These deficiencies will continue during the retrograde from Afghanistan [ Service R4 (Reset, Reconstitution, Right-Size, Re-Focus (R4)).

The purpose of this project is to improve asset maintenance and readiness by increasing asset visibility – with a focus on equipment maintenance status and condition for the warfighter. The goal is to address timely maintenance, increase the efficient allocation of maintenance resources (people, processes and tools) necessary to increase the overall readiness posture of critical weapons systems. This will be accomplished by conducting a fit gap and requirements analysis resulting in a draft Initial Capabilities Document (ICD) focused on improved maintenance operations. The ICD will then enable the application of the doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel and facilities (DOTMLPF) process. The NCMS contact is Debbie Lilu, debral@ncms.org.

Master Data Repository (MDR) Proof of Concept (PoC)/Capabilities Based Assessment (CBA) and Data Storage & Utilization Strategy

The tremendous amount of logistics data created as a result of recent operations currently resides in the MDR/LIW has data quality issues, is inefficiently organized and is at risk of being lost due to a lack of a data strategy.  The Marine Corps Master Data Repository/Logistics Information Warehouse (MDR/LIW) storage servers are at maximum capacity because all data is being kept with no storage or retrieval strategy, purpose or planned replacement. This data is necessary to conduct ongoing sustainment and Depot level repair, additionally the data is used to affect acquisition decision, improve warranty decisions and justify O&M budget cycles.

This CTMA initiative will develop and conduct a Proof of Concept, built upon an exhaustive data forensic analysis and coupled with a forward looking capabilities based assessment that will result in the establishment of the Marine Corps Logistics Data Storage and Utilization Strategy. In doing so, this CTMA project will substantially reduce logistics enterprise risk and minimize Marine Corps sustainment costs associated with the loss of tremendous amounts of logistics data currently being stored within the MDR/LIW. Additionally, weapon system reliability and readiness will be improved by better data mining and analysis that will better pinpoint maintenance and repair trends. This CTMA project will also serve as a template for logistics data storage, access, utilization and safeguarding that can be utilized by the entire DoD. The NCMS contact is Debbie Lilu, debral@ncms.org.

Marine Corps Logistics Portfolio Consolidation Proof of Concept (PoC), Business Case Analysis (BCA) and Demonstration

There are a number of Logistics Portfolio Information Technology (IT) systems and applications developed for use in overseas contingency operations. An analysis of the percentage of operating force usage and subsequent return on investment (ROI) of the current Logistics Portfolio supporting overseas contingency operations has not been conducted. As a result, DC I&L, in his role as the Log Portfolio Manager, has had to rely on anecdotal reports and claims from system program managers to determine the best allocation of resources for the Log Portfolio as well as development of an integration strategy. To date, no detailed and exacting analysis and associated testing/implementation have been accomplished, which results in sub-optimized sustainment of weapon systems, including costs and readiness. This puts the entire Marine Corps Sustainment IT support environment at great risk.

This CTMA initiative will develop and conduct a PoC, demonstration and follow on BCA to determine technology enhancements and best value recommendations for making the 208 tactical and wholesale systems and applications in the logistics portfolio interoperable within the portfolio and with the Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Command and Control (C2) Tactical Services Oriented Architecture (TSOA).  The NCMS contact is Debbie Lilu, debral@ncms.org.

Marine Corps Marine Air Ground Task Forces (MAGTF) Logistics Support Systems Interoperability Demonstration and Capabilities-Based Assessment CBA)

The Marine Corps invested a great deal of time and resources in fielding the Global Combat Support System-Marine Corps (GCSS-MC). Due to technology limitations, the GCSS-MC solution is not suitable for deployed environment at the tactical edge. Specifically, GCSS-MC has challenges operating in a disconnected, intermittent, low bandwidth, high latency (DIL-H) environment. The MLS2 are currently fielded and providing sustainment support to MAGTFs deployed around the world. However, the lack of integration between the MLS2, GCSS-MC and MAGTF C2 have sub optimized the level of sustainment support the Logistics Combat Element (LCE) of the MAGTF can provide. As a result, sustainment costs and weapon systems readiness are at a sub-optimized level. This CTMA initiative will directly address this sustainment issue.

This CTMA initiative will improve battlefield logistics support and reduce sustainment costs for MAGTFs. The CTMA project will conduct an interoperability demonstration and Capabilities Based Assessment (CBA) of the MAGTF Logistics Support Systems (MLS2) that will prove the concept of leveraging Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) to expose capabilities of legacy systems and demonstrate interoperability between systems in a tactical, disconnected intermittent low bandwidth high latency (DIL-H) environment. Additionally, the lessons learned from this demonstration will lead to an approved Joint Capabilities Integration Development System (JCIDS) requirements document and integration strategy. This CTMA project will reduce sustainment costs while improving weapon system readiness. Lessons learned from this project can be used by the other services to achieve similar results.  The NCMS contact is Debbie Lilu, debral@ncms.org.

Marine Corps Distribution IT Portfolio Proof of Concept (PoC) and Business Case Analysis (BCA)

As the Marine Corps continues to affect changes that will enhance the readiness of its equipment, reduce its sustainment costs and increase weapon system readiness and lethality, the enterprise realizes that critical infrastructure changes need to begin. Concurrently the Service is under pressure to adhere to the mandate to move to a Joint Logistics Enterprise environment by the DoD. Many of the components that are pivotal to success in reaching this goal, along with maintenance modernization and equipment readiness, are legacy, unstructured and not integrated. One item of key note is the logistics Information Technology systems that support Marine Corps acquisition, development and maintenance.

This CTMA initiative will address Marine Corps logistics distribution issues that significantly impact sustainment costs and weapon system readiness. To accomplish this, the project will develop, test and analyze a solution that will provide shared visibility without delays across internal organizations and stakeholders based on permissions while sensing exceptions and responding collaboratively and incrementally. This will be conducted by the development of a Notional Logistics Distribution Solution based upon evolving Marine Corps direction, conduct of a PoC followed by a detailed BCA which will justify adoption of the Notional Solution. This development and associated Proof of Concept/analysis will address the Distribution segment of the logistics portfolio upon sustainment, greatly improving weapon system readiness at reduced costs.  The NCMS contact is Debbie Lilu, debral@ncms.org.

Heat Induction Removal of Special Hull Treatment (SHT) Using Exoskeleton and zeroG Arm Technology

The removal of SHT (Special Hull Treatment) is a major cost driver in the maintenance, repair, and disposal process of submarines. Shipyard personnel are required to remove large quantities of SHT using archaic techniques that employ hand held tools and chain fall to physically tear off the materials. Currently the disposal program for 688 Class attack submarines is a very difficult task due to the large amount of tile and the large number of submarines that are decommissioned and being recycled. The current method for removal of more than 10,000 tiles per 688 class submarine is the use of reciprocating saw with one mechanic operating the saw, while another pulls the corner of a the tile with vise grips to give enough room for the blade to slice the back side of the tile. The process leaves tile remnants, adhesive, and paint residue that must be removed with a small chipping gun. These processes causes hand, wrist, and arm fatigue in a very short time period. Over years, the accumulative effects and injury on personnel increases dramatically typically resulting in surgery of the shoulders or other area of the body affected by repetitive exposure.

This CTMA project will utilize the heat induction process with exoskeleton and zeroG technology to achieve safe and efficient removal of SHT and MIP in a manner suitable for a shipyard dry dock environment and operable with only moderate training. The NCMS contact is Dana Ellis, danae@ncms.org.

HUSKY Route Clearance Vehicle Front/Rear Modules

Current operations in Afghanistan require the use of the Husky route clearance vehicle to ensure safe travel of military and civilian personnel throughout the region.  The Husky vehicle is the main vehicle used in route clearance operations in identifying and locating IDE threats. Currently route clearance missions are being reduced due to the lack of front and rear modules in theater to repair and maintain the fleet.  This CTMA project would test the design and sustainment of these modules through a pilot deployment in theater.  The NCMS contact is Chuck Ryan, chuckr@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

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 to NCMS:

Applied Technology Integration, Inc. (ATI) (www.ATIintegration.com)

ATI is a full service product development firm offering engineering, design, analysis, testing and manufacturing services. Specializing in weight optimized engineered solutions in an effort to help customers integrate their innovations into cost effective manufacturable products.

University of Dayton Research Institute (www.udri.udayton.edu)

Helping customers achieve research and development goals and solve challenging technological problems has been the focus of the University of Dayton Research Institute since its inception more than 50 years ago.

QinetiQ North America (www.QinetiQ-NA.com)

QinetiQ North America delivers innovative solutions to support defense, security and intelligence organizations (i.e., Dept. of Homeland Security, Dept. of Defense etc…) and to support federal civilian agencies (i.e., Dept. of State, GSA & NASA etc…)

Completed CTMA Project: Synthetic Instrumentation (SI)

This project investigated the benefits of deploying a state-of-the-art automatic test system (ATS) test station incorporating SI in a DoD maintenance application. SI reduces reliance upon hardware-intensive instrument functionality necessary to satisfy traditional ATS stimulus and response requirements. Since ATS test stations are employed throughout the DoD maintenance hierarchy, the transition from traditional instruments to SI presented a significant opportunity to mitigate hardware obsolescence, reduce the equipment footprint, improve adaptation to emerging requirements and reduce the overall lifecycle cost of ATS (Figure 1). The SI CTMA ATS performance was benchmarked against the legacy United States Air Force (USAF) F-15 Electronic Systems Test Set (ESTS). The ESTS is currently used by the USAF to perform Intermediate-level maintenance on approximately 50 avionics line replaceable units (LRUs) across their F-15 aircraft fleet.

Figure 1. SI CTMA Technology vs. Legacy Systems

The SI CTMA project was conducted in two phases and focused on evaluation of SI-based ATS benefits in the following categories:

1. Maintenance Efficiency

2. Maintenance Effectiveness

3. Operational Availability

4. Operations and Support Cost.

A series of Key Performance Parameters (KPPs) were established to capture the performance related benefits associated with Maintenance Efficiency, Maintenance Effectiveness and Operational Availability. The achieved results at Elmendorf and Seymour AFBs are truly revolutionary. The projected U.S. Air Force operations and support cost savings to replace ESTS with the SI system to support the F-15 avionics LRU workload over the next 25 years exceeds $500M.

Completed CTMA Project: High Performance Cordage-Deck Edge Netting (HPC-DEN)

The main objective of this collaboration effort was to install HPC-DEN for improved stealth and lower operation costs for U.S. Naval ships. Presently the Navy uses nylon netting as the standard net material for low temperature applications. Nylon nets typically have to be replaced anywhere from 12-24 months due to breakdown from ultraviolet degradation, abrasion, and shrinkage.

Originally developed under a previous SBIR program (N00178-00-C-3053), cordage netting was developed that would have the same mechanical properties as the nylon netting with a longer service life.

Nets fabricated from the HPC-DEN cordage under the SBIR contract were installed on the USS Howard (DDG 83) in August 2003 and removed in April 2009 (after approximately five years and nine months of “in-service” time). Under a different contract (N00014-10-C-0084), the “in-service” nets were load tested to deter­mine the residual strength of the nets. Load testing was performed to three separate phases though only Phase I (1,000 lbs. load for 10 minutes) is relevant to the Navy specification. Phase II (test to failure or 4,000 lbs.) and Phase III (10% cords cut to simulate damaged nets) testing were performed to determine the extent of the net degradation.

All “in-service” load tested nets successfully passed all three phases of testing with no failures. Since these nets were still capable of supporting 4,000 lbs., one can extrapolate that the nets will provide a minimal of six years service life and still support the Navy load requirements – sustain 1,000 lbs. force for 10 minutes for large nets and 500 lbs. for 10 minutes for corner nets. Based on the successful load test data, the team sought out a ship that needed new nets as a means to provide the ship with new nets and in turn to transition the technology for the laboratory to a real-life application. A helicopter landing trainer (HLT), USS Baylander (IX-514) stationed at Pensacola Naval Air Station, Pensacola, FL was chosen for installation of the nets. The ship’s crew installed and lashed 27 HPC safety nets around the flight deck edge perimeter frames. Figure 1 shows the installed HPC-DEN nets along one side of the ship. Figure 2 shows the nylon cargo nets lashed to the frames prior to installation of the new nets.

After net installation, all 27 of the flight deck safety nets were subjected to a static weight test in accordance with NSWCCD-SSES Sketch #SK-7548 and successfully passed.

Figure 1. HPC-DEN Installed on USS Baylander
(IX-514)

Figure 2. Nylon Deck Edge Safety Nets on USS Baylander (IX-514)

The HPC-DEN installations should provide the ship with:

• At least a 6-year service life (a 3-fold improvement over current system)
• Reduced static load test maintenance
• Easy installation for improved turnaround times on replacement netting
• Net construction and finish to custom sizes
• Weight reduction and greater load strength
• Prolonged life of aluminum frames
• Reduced net shrinkage
• Resistance to ultraviolet wear and weathering
• Resistance to salt water, alkalis, acid, oils and gasoline
• Netting extruded in color totally eliminating need for additional color coating per NAVSEA requirements
• Decreased uplift forces
• Reduced drag when the nets are submerged in water during operations
• Improved fuel efficiency
• Reduced life cycle costs
• No radar signature.

A recent published investigation of Maintenance History Reports on DDG-51 class stanchion damage found that hull numbers 52 to 84 contained a total of 311 net/frame failures. Repair costs were upwards of $80,000 for a single incident, and many of these incidents required stoppage of flight operations until net repairs could be completed. With a 3X improvement in net performance, capability readiness would increase with lowered maintenance costs for a wide variety of Navy vessels.

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