Ship Maintenance Processes with Collaborative Product Lifecycle Management and 3D Terrestrial Laser Scanning Tools: Reducing Costs and Increasing Productivity

Abstract

The current cost-constrained environment within the federal government and the Department of Defense (DoD) requires a defensible approach to cost reductions without compromising the productivity of core defense processes. Therefore, defense leaders today must maintain and modernize the United States Armed Forces to retain technological superiority while simultaneously balancing defense budget cost constraints and extensive military operational commitments. At the same time, defense leaders must also navigate a complex information technology (IT) acquisition process. The DoD spends over $63 billion annually, or 14% of its total budget, on defense maintenance programs throughout the world (Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense [Logistics and Material Readiness], 2006). One such core process that is central to naval operations, is the ship maintenance process. This process alone accounts for billions of the overall Navy annual budget. There have been a series of initiatives designed to reduce the cost of this core process, including ship maintenance (SHIPMAIN), which was designed to standardize ship maintenance alterations in order to take advantage of the cost-savings learning curve. The main problem in SHIPMAIN has been that the normal cost-reduction learning curve for common ship maintenance items across a series of ship platforms has not yet been realized. The purpose of SHIPMAIN was to take advantage of this cost-savings learning curve over time. This study suggests that unless the SHIPMAIN process employs 3D Terrestrial Laser Scanning (3D TLS) and collaborative Product Lifecycle Management (collab-PLM) tools, SHIPMAIN will be unlikely to obtain the learning curve benefits. This study uses the knowledge value added (KVA) + systems dynamics (SD) + integrated risk management (IRM) methodology to estimate, analyze, and optimize the potential cost savings and productivity improvements within the context of an optimal portfolio.