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The service life of many Department of Defense (DoD) weapon systems has been extended far beyond their original designed lives. As the life cycle grows, drawing packages become more difficult to obtain, parts never intended for replacement wear out, and rapidly advancing technologies make existing parts obsolete. As original equipment manufacturers and other sources of weapon systems and spare parts support dwindle, skills needed for sustaining these systems, too, are lost. Thus, supporting these systems is difficult and expensive. These factors combined with the complications of downsizing, consolidation, and economic constraints in government and industry, have produced critical issues for the DoD.
To help alleviate these problems, the Diminishing Manufacturing Sources (DMS) Shared Data Warehouse is being developed by Industrial Support Programs, Defense Logistics Agency to enable DoD to more effectively manage part obsolescence. The objective of the DMS Shared Data Warehouse is to improve the sustainability of DoD weapon systems by reducing the impact of diminishing manufacturing sources. The Shared Data Warehouse promotes a systematic, single methodology for processing notices of discontinuance and facilitates a central repository for DMS management within DoD. By applying business process evaluation practices that augment existing diminishing manufacturing sources screening processes, the DMS Shared Data Warehouse provides rapid, economical identification, dissemination, and processing of diminishing manufacturing sources affected part numbers and national stock numbers.
Rather than starting from scratch, the Shared Data Warehouse integrates and interfaces with existing elements of the DoD diminishing manufacturing sources infrastructure. The DMS Shared Data Warehouse is a Web-enabled, database application that provides seamless connectivity to various disparate databases. It leverages existing information and data resources without replication or relocation. Eventually this pool of data will encompass data sources across DoD including databases from the Air Force, Army, and Navy. Currently these databases reside at various DoD activities such as the Defense Supply Center, Columbus; the Defense Logistic Information Service, Battle Creek, Michigan; and the Government Industry Data Exchange Program Operations Center, Corona California.
The process currently includes database linking, intra-organizational collaboration, business process evaluation practices, and application of advanced information and electronic commerce technologies. By providing connectivity to the various disparate databases, the application allows for systematic searches of these databases in an automated mode of operation through a single point of entry. The single point of entry and search capabilities increases the accuracy and significantly decrease the time required for searches. For an average case, the time required to conduct a search for the manual approach is reduced from several weeks, to a few days and, in some instances, to a few hours for the electronic approach. This application frees up increasingly scarce manpower to identify potential diminishing manufacturing source items and their alternatives before they become a critical need. This focus allows for concentration on true problem areas. Additionally, the application will enable the development of a centralized repository for solutions and through shared information foster common solutions within DoD and its industry partners.
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