June 2008

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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CTMA project funding

Does your DoD facility have any year-end money available?  Consider investing in your technology infrastructure by MIPR'ing available year-end funds to the CTMA program to work on projects of specific interest to your operations.  Contact Chuck Ryan at chuckr@ncms.org.   
NCMS welcome the following new member company:

Intelli-Check - Mobilisa, Inc. (www.icmobil.com)
 Intelli-Check – Mobilisa provides a total package security system for access control to protect airports, government and commercial buildings, military installations and other critical sites as well as for first responder initiatives. In addition, the company is the leading innovator of Wireless Over Water technologies, providing secure and efficient communication in a marine environment.
 

Project Completion: Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) for Six-Sigma Quality

This project addressed major opportunities for improving the way in which product design data is linked to the Quality Plan and Manufacturing information throughout the Supply Chain and product lifecycle from initial design to Depot Maintenance. The pilot demonstration used a new production part similar to one that currently receives Depot Maintenance at Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC). The work done during project execution to understand the Depot requirements sets the stage for broader deployment of the product lifecycle management (PLM) tools that were successfully demonstrated. It is expected that further deployment will yield very significant benefits measured in terms of improved quality, reduced cost, and reduced time required to launch new products or change existing designs.


Prior to the launch of this project, the Air Force launched its eLog21 logistics transformation program in support of DoD’s transformation to the use of joint expeditionary forces in anticipated regional conflicts. The centerpiece of eLog21 is the Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS) – a global, net-centric, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) based business information technology (IT) system with ERP, APS, PLM, and MRO solutions. Close collaboration was established between all Commercial Technologies Maintenance Activities (CTMA) product data centered projects and ECSS. That collaboration will be continued so long as PLM-related projects continue to be funded through the CTMA program at the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS).

Based on the pilot results, the total quality and productivity-related savings opportunity for an OEM is estimated to be between $11 and $13 million per year. The CTMA project team estimates that Depot benefits can easily be $8-9 million per year.  Implementation costs will vary based on several factors including organization size and starting point in terms of hardware, software, and business processes. If the implementation costs for a given company are in the $6 to $12 million range, the payback for the investment will be on the order of six months to one year.


 DoD Participants include the U.S. Air Force – Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC), Anniston Army Depot, and the Navy Fleet Readiness Center East (Cherry Point).

The NCMS contact is Tony Haynes, tonyh@ncms.org, 734-995-4930.

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 now have over 70 new project ideas submitted for the CTMA program.  These projects are all being reviewed with the individual services in order to seek funding to augment the 2008 CTMA funding directed by Congress.  Keep the ideas coming, because they also serve to illustrate the tremendous need for new technologies to increase weapon systems readiness.

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.