December 5, 2005
(Computerworld)
The University of Maryland has been awarded a $2.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop an interactive supply chain system for the military.
The goal of the 12-month project is to get repairable military equipment back into battle as soon as possible.
"It's a technical demonstration to improve the maintenance and readiness of a very important aircraft, the F/A-18 Navy fighter jet," said Kenneth Gabriel, senior research scholar at the University of Maryland Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise. Gabriel is the engineer and policy expert serving as principal investigator on the project.
The idea is to integrate several technologies to demonstrate that the aircraft can be maintained more efficiently by using wireless communications, predictive algorithms, or prognostics, and automatic identification technologies such as radio frequency identification tags, smart cards and biometrics. The technologies would be linked to the transportation, distribution and acquisition of parts needed to repair equipment or enable a mission to take place, Gabriel said.
"So it's an IT network that uses technology in [those] three areas," Gabriel said. "And the integration of these pieces [through a secure Web portal] will enable the Navy to do the mission better, and that means to have more availability of the aircraft ... at reduced costs."
Pulling all these technologies together in a military context can add efficiency, flexibility and maneuverability to U.S. forces, said Jacques Gansler, who was undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics during the Clinton administration. Gansler now directs the Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise.
A unique element in the proposed system's technological chain is the use of prognostics -- the warning systems built into the F/A-18s and other advanced military hardware that can detect unusual mechanical performance and analyze a likely cause, Gabriel said.
"The goal is to develop sensors within the platform -- in this particular case, the F/A 18 aircraft -- to detect failures and to broadcast these failures to the maintenance crew before the aircraft lands," he said. That allows them "enough time to understand where that landing aircraft ought to be located on the shipboard, or to be ... prepared for what is needed to repair the aircraft very quickly, if that's possible, so they'll have better management of the fleet activities."
If the project is successful, Gabriel said, the Navy could use it to improve its logistics support for the entire fleet.
"If we get smarter about what we put into the supply chain, we can help transform the way military units operate," says William Lucyshyn, co-investigator on the project and director of research at the Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise. "With the F/A-18s, the goal is to reduce the downtime and maximize the fighting force -- while still reducing the support costs. This can make a significant difference in military effectiveness."