The CTMA Connector

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.

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Register Now at:

https://www.ncms.org/SSL/08CTMA-Quantico/08-registration.htm

U.S. Marine Corps Regional Workshop

February 26 - 27, 2008

(note date change from previous announcements)

Marine Corps Base Quantico

WORKSHOP LOCATION:

The workshop will be held at The Clubs at Quantico, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia.

WORKSHOP FOCUS:

Application of technology to improve the performance of Marine Corps maintenance and repair processes. The primary Marine Corps maintenance facilities include Marine Corps Maintenance Center, Albany, Georgia and Marine Corps Maintenance Center, Barstow, California.

WORKSHOP PURPOSE:

Communicate Marine Corps maintenance process improvement opportunities / technology needs to improve weapon systems readiness.
Specific industry maintenance/repair processes, procedures and/or equipment will be presented that may benefit from new technology implementation (increase throughput and/or decrease cost).

WORKSHOP GOAL:

Develop appropriate Commercial Technologies for Maintenance Activities (CTMA) projects with Marine Corps activities, Industry Partners, and NCMS that will provide the development and/or implementation of new technology solutions with measurable results (METRICS).

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

Industry – Defense OEM, commercial industry, and technology providers.
DoD Maintenance Community - Engineering and Management Professionals.

BENEFITS:

For industry
- Learn Marine Corps depot and maintenance, repair processes and needs opportunities.
- Discover potential business opportunities.
For Marine Corps Maintenance Facilities
- Communicate issues / needs to industry for identification of potential solutions.
- Network with manufacturing industry experts.
- Technology exchange opportunities with other depots.
For DoD Maintenance Facilities
- Identify areas of common issues / needs with the Marine Corps Maintenance Centers.
- Network with other DoD maintenance personnel.

SAVE THE DATE

2008 Annual CTMA Working Symposium

April 7 - 10

Baltimore, Maryland

2008 CTMA Funding Update

The 2008 funding for the CTMA program was trimmed to $1.6 million,
about 1/3 of the average funding levels for the last 9 years. Congressional
plus-ups are down substantially both in number and levels in for 2008, so
the cut was not totally unexpected . NCMS and OSD are working hard along
several fronts to restore some of the funding to the program with an eye to
insert the CTMA program in the Department of Defense budget in FY'10. We
will let you know how we are progressing.

New Project Approval: Centralized Fleet Automated Management System (CFAMS)

DoD Participants: Sierra Army Depot, Red River Army Depot, Anniston Army Depot, Tobyhanna Army Depot, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

In the service of the warfighter, DoD must use thousands of industrial fleet vehicles, performing a wide range of critical logistics support tasks, including cargo, pallet and container handling through distribution center and warehousing functions as well as aircraft ground support. However, very little has been done to improve the maintenance, and operational readiness of the industrial vehicle fleet. Industrial fleet vehicles tend to be a non-controlled asset with no key control or operator accountability; these vehicles are potentially available to unlicensed and/or untrained operators who are most often responsible for lost work time accidents and/or costly damage to both the vehicle and cargo/inventory within a given facility. All of these factors lead to reduced operational readiness of the fleet, as well as lost productivity contributing to lower throughput of critical supplies and military impediment to the warfighter.

This project will augment the current commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) wireless fleet management hardware and software solution, termed the Centralized Fleet Automated Management System (CFAMS) and apply the technology to the DoD environment.

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

New Project Formation: Modernization of Nickel Electroplating at Depots

NCMS is forming a new project that will apply the no-mask tooling approach to nickel plating. No-mask tooling uses a combination of conformal anode technology and innovative rack design that has dramatically increased both throughput and quality of hard chrome plating operations at several depots. The new project will develop tooling specifically for nickel baths, and will investigate the possibility of adapting the no-mask arrangement for partial immersion plating and solution pumping (plating without the need for a large immersion bath). Current participants include the Corpus Christi Army Depot, the Naval Aviation Depot at North Island, Advanced Tooling Corporation, and CAI Resources. For more information, contact Paul Chalmer at NCMS, paulc@ncms.org or (734) 995-4911.

Participants needed on New Project Ideas: Submit and view project ideas at http://ctmaideas.ncms.org. Add your comments to new project ideas and indicate your interest in helping to define and participate in the project.

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.