Advanced Digital Fabrication and Repair, A Rapid Manufacturing and Repair Program

DoD participants:  Norfolk Naval Shipyard (Naval Foundry & Propeller Center, Philadelphia Detachment); Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard; Trident Refit Facility, Kings Bay; Oklahoma City Air Logistic Center; Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Keyport; Portsmouth Naval Shipyard; NAVAIR – China Lake.

Currently, military depots are located at various positions along the continuum of advanced digital manufacturing capability. The vanguard Maintenance facilities possess reverse engineering capabilities that are linked digitally with the CAD solid modeling, which in turn directly drives the digital manufacturing capability, whether it is located in-house or is contractor supported. Examples of such DoD capability can be observed at Trident Refit Facility (TRF) – Kings Bay, NUWC – Keyport and NAVAIR – China Lake. Located in the mid-range of the continuum are those facilities that embraced the technology at a late date or have only recently participated in a collaborative program to acquire and assimilate the necessary awareness and skills. Facilities such as the Naval Foundry and Propeller Center (NFPC), Norfolk Naval Detachment – Philadelphia, OC-ALC Tinker AFB, and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (Portsmouth NS) fall into this category. Lastly, there are other Maintenance organizations that are either not aware or have not embraced digital manufacturing methods. Presently, the leaders of U.S. industry are embracing ADF and offer to collaborate with Defense Maintenance facilities through the NCMS CTMA Program to rapidly accomplish the effective implementation of ADF & R technologies, irrespective of the current state of DoD facility development. As a result of this proposed program, the increased capability through ADF & R within the Defense community will enhance readiness, reduce cycle time normally associated with conventional manufacturing and repair technologies, and decrease Defense Maintenance vulnerability because of loss of U.S. based industrial expertise to foreign lands.

This project builds off the successes of the previous Rapid Prototyping Technology project, and is focused upon the direct manufacturing of functional parts. Benefits expected in the use of Advanced Digital Manufacturing and Repair include:

• Reduction in cost and/or cycle time for replacement parts or tooling by as much as 80%.
• Reduced dependence on foreign sources due to loss of U.S. based industrial sources.
• Reverse engineering of parts provides computer-aided design solid models in electronic format for future use.

NCMS project manager is Connie Philips, conniep@ncms.org, 734-995-7051.

LAV Life-Cycle Logistics Support Tool

DoD participants:  Marine Corp Maintenance Center, Albany; Marine Corp Maintenance Center, Barstow; Anniston Army Depot; US Army Tank Command; Aberdeen Proving Grounds; Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock 

This project will test and deploy new pre­dictive condition-based maintenance methods that will monitor a variety of performance conditions and energy management, and relay this information for action in the field.

Benefits expected in the use of the support tool include: 

• Over $2 million in cost avoidance through improvements in maintenance time and reduced parts inventory
• The LAV Depot community, the prime benefactor of this effort, would benefit by receiving vehicles for rework using condition based induction that compliments their existing “Inspect and Repair Only as Necessary” (IRON) program. 
• More accurate, timely data from sensors would also aid the Depot as they transition from a “one size fits all” statement of work-based business model to a predictive model that facilitates “just-in-time” LAV material inventory control and rework.
• The SBT software package would provide the O-Level and Depot maintainers with proper procedures and process standards typically reducing labor times by 30% or more, which in turn reduces overall support costs.

• Performance measurements include but are not limited to:  speed of maintenance actions, accuracy of maintenance actions, overall equipment readiness rates, quantity of remove-and-replace actions, no-evidence-of-failure-rates, etc.
• This project would unite maintenance data and sensor data within an IDE portal environment to permit the initial development of diagnostic and prognostic tools within PM-LAV and both that would reduce overall LAV life-cycle costs and improve operational availability.
• The safety and sensor data collected during this effort can be returned to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to assist with possible platform design improvements.
• This project reduces remove-and-replace actions and no-evidence-of-failure-rates (reduces misdiagnosis and waste of functional components).
• It would reduce troubleshooting, diagnosis, and repair times both at the Depot and within the field to improve overall readiness rates.
• It would allow the PM-LAV to make more accurate predictions about the levels of spares stockpiles.
• It utilizes best commercial practices and the most sophisticated communications, telematics and sensor technology available today to arm the warfighter with mission critical information in real time.
• This project will continually feed updates to the life-cycle cost reduction plan.

In addition to the depot community, we are also working closely with the LAV program office at TACOM and with the LAV Technical School at Aberdeen.

NCMS project manager is Mike Gnam, mikeg@ncms.org, 734-995-4971.