September 2004

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 subject line.

New CTMA project approved:

Automated Test Equipment (ATE) Synthetic Instrumentation

This project has the potential to significantly improve productivity and prevent millions of dollars in the expense of testing electronics and avionics.  WR-ALC, Elmendorf AFB, and NADEP North Island are the participating DoD facilities contributing to this development.  The objective is to demonstrate the ability to rapidly design, integrate, and validate three test program sets (TPS) for F-15 avionics line replaceable units. The TPS will be run on the developed synthetic instrumentation (SI) equipped ATE within the initial 12-month development period.  The equipment will be relocated to Elmendorf AFB for familiarity training and a comparative performance assessment with existing F-15 I-Level ATE as part of a 60-day user trial.  The net result of this activity will demonstrate that alternatives to existing F-15 I-Level support can be developed with minimal resources which outperform existing support systems in terms of ease of operation, repair throughput, reliability, footprint, etc. Sufficient capabilities will be included in the ATE design allowing the use of passive TPS hardware design and leveraging emerging instrument technologies and relevant non-USAF investment.

OptiCAM/I-POMX Project in the News:

Government Enterprise Magazine printed an article entitled "Staying Efficient, Wired Or Wireless" that highlights the CTMA OptiCAM/I-POMX project being conducted with the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center.  The article can be found at

http://www.governmententerprise.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=29116675

On-Board Wiring Diagnostics Tester

The Navy has established wiring system as the second highest safety concern for Naval Aviation (Avionics Operational Advisory Group, November 2002). This proposed tester will provide the hands-on aircraft maintainers on the flight deck an additional useful tool to trouble-shoot and analyze wiring related problems. The equipment will be designed and installed onto aircraft wire harnesses to monitor and diagnostically test live powered wires on aircraft while in-flight in their original branched configurations. Organizational levels of naval aviation maintenance are the intended users of this test equipment and the technology also could apply to the USAF, US Coast Guard, ARMY, and NASA.

To launch this project, at least two DoD O/I-Level or depot facilities and two industry participants are required.

The NCMS project manager is Lee Patch, leep@ncms.org, 734-995-4972.

High Speed Laser Depainting

A high-powered, high-productivity laser has been developed with enough power to depaint metal and composite surfaces at a productivity rate of 200 square feet per hour of paint 5 mils thick. A breakthrough in cooling technology has permitted powerful lasers to be small enough to be portable at the jobsite.  The pulsed CO₂ technology used is very gentle to the substrate,  user-friendly, and also retina safe.  All waste remaining from the volatilized aged paint film is simply drawn back into a canister for disposal or recycling into other paints.  The process therefore is “dustless”.  A successful working prototype has been in operation for a year, and prototype internal components have has passed wear and durability test requirements indicating a life of five to ten years expected for the units.

The laser delivery system can be manually operated as a hand held pistol/shroud arrangement, or attached to robotic systems.  Optical physics makes possible a variety of “wands” suited for differing end uses. The process is believed to be capable of lowering the average costs incurred in the depainting process by 50%, along with the more intangible advantages of lower manpower requirements, greater safety and environmental friendliness.

The project is seeking industrial participants to help fund development of the first few production units for testing and evaluation. 

For further information contact the NCMS Project Manager, Steve Hale, steveh@ncms.org, 734-995-2195.

NCMS Offers Strategic Roadmapping Services

NCMS, in partnership with the Albright Strategy Group, is now offering a strategic roadmapping service to its members and other interested companies or entities.  This service is provided for company roadmaps, depot roadmaps, or industry roadmaps.  NCMS will provide facilitation to a cross-functional company team that will generate a set of roadmaps that will become integral to the long range strategy of the company.  Most frequently, the team roadmapping process itself can by more valuable that the actual roadmaps themselves. This occurs because of consensus building and easier buy-in by the participants when it comes time to implement. The resultant set of roadmaps will address:

1. Strategy and Mission The organization strategy and mission.
2. Customer Drivers and Applications Prioritized list of customer needs and the applications for the manufacturing facility – the “whys.”
3. Competitive Position Competitive approaches and competitive landscape.
4. Capability Drivers Capabilities and performance targets – the “whats.”
5. Targets and Priorities Targets for the drivers, trends, experience curves, potential disruptions.
6. Manufacturing and Skills Architecture The elements of manufacturing and skills and how thy fit together and interact.
7. Capability and Technology Element Evolution The technology roadmap – the “hows” for the elements of the architecture (technologies and skills).
8. Action Plan Technology strategy, resources and timing of investments in technologies – the “to-do’s.”
9. Technology Investment Map Priorities of technology investments
10. Risk Roadmap Key indicators of risks to plans. Track for signals that indicate need to change the roadmap.

Anticipated benefits of strategic roadmapping include:

1. Optimized alignment of long range business strategies with technology strategies 2. Better 5 year plan for equipment and facilities (ID Technology investments ($); Investment plan for people, equipment and plan for technology transfer; Technology insertion plan (list); Vision for new equipment; Identify work load;
2. Longer range vision for the company,depot, or industry. A more definitive action plan for the long term is generated. A plan that spans changes in command or management.
3. Position company or depot to survive. Drive growth
4. Capitalize on internal capabilities, core competencies and competitive edge
5. Plan for life cycle maintenance (get involved up front in acquisition process)
6. Plan at the plant level. Disciplined process for planning control of own destiny. Need to be consistent in tech. needs up vs. down the corporate chain or the supply chain.
7. Address support requirements for new technologies. Insert technologies w/o creating bottlenecks
8. Measurement tool (measure strategy implementations against roadmap)
9. Coordination of environmental compliance

For more information on this service or to receive a customized proposal, contact Mike Gnam at 734-995-4971, mikeg@ncms.org.  NCMS member companies will receive a discounted quotation.

New Project Ideas (click on topics to see descriptions), if you are interested, contact the project manager listed.

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.

Copyright 2004
National Center for Manufacturing Sciences