CTMA Connector – February 2012 DOD Maintenance

Dr. Chuck Ryan - Vice President, Technology — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:20:36 +0000

February 2012

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.

Two Separate Events; Two Networking Opportunities; Two Registrations; One Location

1) CTMA Technology Showcase

NCMS members are invited to participate in a Technology Showcase all day on Monday, March 26th at the Navy Fleet Readiness Center SW (FRC-SW) in the Island Club Dining Room. This is a great opportunity for members to display their technologies to their peers, Government attendees, and the engineers and artisans at FRC-SW. The event begins at 9:00 am (set up beginning at 7:30 a.m.) and goes until 4 p.m.

This opportunity is open to all NCMS members at Community level or higher and the cost is $200 for a tabletop display. (If you would like to become a NCMS Member, please download the application here.)

These showcase events in the past have received high praises for their ability to target the Government’s technology needs and showcase members’ innovations. It’s an opportunity not to be missed!

Registration and agenda for the Technology Showcase can be found at:

http://www.ncms.org/index.php/programs/ctma/ctma-current/ctma-symposium-2012/technology-showcase/

2) 2012 CTMA Showcase March 26-28, Navy Fleet Readiness Center Southwest, Coronado, CA “Collaborate to Innovate”

Plan to attend the 2012 CTMA Symposium as well. A feature of this year’s Symposium is a panel discussion involving DoD Program Managers where PM’s from each of the services will review
their overall technology needs with respect to maintaining and upgrading their capabilities, and how the CTMA program is relevant to their issues. A second panel discussion will include commanding officers from several of the DoD depots discussing their maintenance operations, outline their current technology gaps, and present future technology needs. The detailed agenda and registration for the 2012 CTMA Symposium can be found at: http://www.ncms.org/index.php/programs/ctma/ctma-current/ctma-symposium-2012/

Further questions about either event can be directed to Debbie Lilu, debral@ncms.org, 734-995-7038

CTMA Program Success Measures:

Recently, we performed a thorough analysis of the CTMA program trying to quantify measures of success for the program. This analysis showed that the CTMA program is responsible for:

Actual cumulative benefits of $343 million to date, with projected cumulative benefits adding up to $7.7 billion through 2020.
Overall, 76% of the CTMA projects have been implemented in DoD maintenance operations. The rate increases to over 95% for projects with direct service funding.
Two-thirds of projects initiated in the past 3 years have received additional service funding, showing project relevance and reach into the DoD.
52% of CTMA Projects have addressed reliability issues in weapon systems, with significant improvements to reliability and resultant savings.
49% of CTMA Projects have addressed Cycle Time Reduction. (many address both) Reductions in cycle time range up to orders of magnitude improvements.
The number of industry partners has grown 50% in the past 3 years, bringing a wider variety of technology developments to DoD sustainment issues.

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.

The post CTMA Connector – February 2012 DOD Maintenance appeared first on National Center for Manufacturing Sciences.

Defense Partners with NCMS in $100,000 Maintenance Technology Challenge

Phil Callihan — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:00:40 +0000

ANN ARBOR, MI – December 8, 2011. The Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Maintenance, Mr. John Johns, has issued the 2012 Maintenance Technology Challenge designed to introduce new technologies to DoD’s maintenance facilities that will help sustain materiel availability at reduced cost. Mr. Johns has tapped the Commercial Technologies for Maintenance Activities (CTMA) Program, a unique collaboration between OSD and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) to administer the $100,000 challenge. Mr. Johns sees this as “a unique opportunity to drive innovation and maintenance technology insertion by leveraging the strong track record of the CTMA program and partnership with NCMS.” In driving in this direction, he has also emphasized “the need of bringing new, but proven, technologies from the commercial sector into DoD maintenance as a key element of a multi-pronged strategy to continue to produce the levels of materiel readiness required by our military forces, but at a substantially reduced cost.”

Concept papers are due to NCMS by March 1st, 2012. “We are looking for projects that demonstrate strong benefits not only to the DoD but to industry as well,” states Dr. Chuck Ryan, NCMS Vice President and co-director of the CTMA Program, he adds that “strong teaming with DoD maintenance facilities is also encouraged.”

The selection criterion for project ideas includes the level of innovation, overall benefits, ability to deploy the technology within 12 months, and the strength of the team. Five finalists will be given the opportunity to present their project ideas to the DoD Senior Sustainment Leader Panel, who will ultimately choose the winning team for the Challenge as part of the 2012 CTMA Symposium, being held at the U.S. Navy Fleet Readiness Center Southwest in Coronado, CA, March 26-28, an annual NCMS symposium which showcases technologies being developed with DoD maintenance activities, and features briefings by senior DoD leaders around issues and plans for the sustainment of their fleets.

In addition, a technology showcase will be hosted by FRC-SW presenting an opportunity for NCMS membership to demonstrate new technologies that may be of interest to the DoD. Up-to-date information on the Challenge, Symposium and Technology Showcase can be found at www.ncms.org.

About NCMS:

The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, the largest cross industry collaborative Research & Development consortium in North America, is dedicated to driving innovation in commercial, defense, robotics and environmentally sustainable manufacturing. NCMS has over 25 years of experience in the formation and management of complex, multi-partner collaborative R&D programs, and is backed by corporate members representing virtually every manufacturing sector.

About CTMA:

The lifesaving Commercial Technologies for Maintenance Activities (CTMA) program is a Department of Defense supported NCMS initiative that ensures American troops and their equipment are ready to face any situation, with the most up-to-date and best-maintained platforms and tools on earth.

The post Defense Partners with NCMS in $100,000 Maintenance Technology Challenge appeared first on National Center for Manufacturing Sciences.

National Center for Manufacturing Sciences » Technology Showcase

CTMA Connector – February 2012 DOD Maintenance

Defense Partners with NCMS in $100,000 Maintenance Technology Challenge