Disruptive developments for the military

Every asset used to support military operations has a vital role – even the humble boot is useless if it doesn’t fit either the user or the task properly. As equipment becomes more complex, the task of capability management for defense departments gets a whole lot more complex. Kevin Deal, vice president of Aerospace and Defense at IFS North America, offers insight on the key developments that will impact asset management and takes a look at sixth-generation logistical support.

Military doctrine and warfare have changed significantly throughout the past 20 years. Equipment is seldom being pre-positioned forward at main operating bases, and defense departments are now providing engineering across first, second, and third line support, with industry becoming involved mostly in the fourth line, where it provides maintenance, repair, and overhaul capabilities. The change of emphasis from a static force to the need for capability projection and expeditionary warfare now requires rapid deployment and flexibility, demanding a new operational model for equipment acquisition, management, and ownership.
 

Capability management challenge

Organizations are focused on capabilities that balance through-life costs and operational effectiveness. This means leveraging the cost savings and process improvements enabled by a new set of disciplines and business processes with new business models such as contractor logistics support, performance based logistics, and product support agreement programs. The result is that regardless of whether the support environment is undertaken by uniformed personnel, by a third party or an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), suppliers have to deal with the increasing complexity of product, contract, and supplier relationships.

Information systems used must be functional enough to gather the data required to monitor key performance indicators and review activity but also deliver visual insight to understand enterprise performance and enable better decision-making.
 

Where will we go from here?

From an operational perspective, there are four key developments, which Deal predicts will have a significant impact on long-term strategies:

Self-analysis and reporting – Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) is a capability that has been used consistently for a number of years, but the change likely to be seen in the future is how it integrates into the enterprise solution. Equipment will report its current configuration in real time, and usage information will be analyzed, providing drivers for an overall enterprise solution to start delivering practicable and realizable business case benefits.

Mobile – Tailoring mobile apps to meet the needs of solution users is where mobile has the potential to do something significant. Mobile apps offer a solution of gaining essential feedback of specific operational information without inundating the user with functionality, in a format optimized for specific equipment, easily customizable, and devoid of superfluous overhead.

Context aware – Solutions will automatically tailor their operation through recognition of the maintenance environment they are in. Being aware of unique environments in the field will enable tailoring in more effective ways, making life easier for the user.

Augmented reality – Sophisticated technology will move into practical use. Augmented reality solutions are able provide expertise and instruction on demand. For example, using a live feed from an engineer’s headset, an expert can guide and instruct maintenance that may well be taking place in a difficult to reach location. Solutions will move to being in- terfaced with the enterprise solution, with feeds of maintenance information being two-way in real time.
 

The future – GLSE

During the next 20 years, we will see the full integration of operations, maintenance, and the supply chain into a logistics support enterprise alongside the continuation of the current move toward more modular applications-based ERP software. This agile breed of solutions is removing the time and pain required to adapt processes using the more traditional, monolithic ERP systems.

The sixth generation logistical support enterprise (GLSE) – this future generation of logistics solutions – will see support optimization through probabilistic methodology with the capability to dynamically interact with the in-service support solutions. Also embedded within it is workforce scheduling and planning capabilities built to respond in real time to real-world events.

Increasingly, the use of technology will be to create an environment that better enables the user to do their job, reducing solution overhead while also providing the essential feedback loop. An advanced model for asset acquisition, management, and ownership must match advanced equipment. Defense forces must embrace these new technological developments – or face being caught flat-footed when asset availability is mission-critical.

IFS
www.ifsworld.com