Shrinking the “Mountain of Metal”: The Potential of Three Advanced Technologies
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Authors
Ford, David
Housel, Tom
Mun, Johnathan
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2017-06
Date
2017-06
Publisher
Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
Military operations create large amounts of damaged equipment, referred to as "mountains of metal."Traditional and current strategies for shrinking the mountain include shipping most equipment to U.S. depots for repair and overhaul. Three advanced technologies--three-dimensional laser scanning, additive manufacturing, and product lifecycle management--can potentially save costs by relocating and accelerating repair operations. Published forecasts of the evolution of these technologies formed the basis for scenarios of their application to shrinking the mountain at U.S. depots, in-theater support facilities, and at forward stations: current use, near-future use, and distant future use. Knowledge Value Added modeling was applied to four technology adoption scenarios (traditional and the three listed) to the Army's up armor HMMWV fleet to estimate returns on investment for each scenario, costs, and potential savings. Cost savings potential of $1.8 billion in the up armor HMMWV fleet and over $21 billion in operations similar in scale to those in Iraq and Afghanistan are estimated. Conclusions include a recommendation to accelerate the adoption and use of these advanced technologies for equipment repair to shrink the mountain of metal.
Type
Report
Description
Series/Report No
Department
Organization
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
NPS-LM-17-201
Sponsors
Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Program
Funder
Format
Citation
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.