Dr. Grace M. Bochenek, TARDEC Director, welcomed more than 200 participants to the CBM+ Workshop held at TARDEC late last year. (TARDEC photo by Elizabeth Carnegie.)

The first annual U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) CBM+ Workshop was held at TARDEC in Warren, MI, late last year. The workshop provided an opportunity to educate and inform the CBM community about the issues, requirements and interoperability challenges for CBM systems across the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) Life Cycle Management Command’s (LCMC’s) ground vehicle fleet.

The “+” in CBM+ refers to all the capabilities that will be realized by a full implementation of CBM. Real-time situational awareness, improved configuration management and further automation of the supply system and maintenance procedures are examples of the added value once CBM is fully realized. The objective of CBM+ is to develop technologies, processes and capabilities to perform vehicle maintenance on an as-needed basis instead of performing maintenance on a reactive or time-based methodology. Proactive maintenance will streamline the Army’s supply system and increase vehicle readiness rates, reducing the number of vehicles needed to ensure mission success. Increased readiness will give commanders more confidence in their mission planning and impact the ability to transport assets and personnel for combat and peacekeeping missions.

The goal of the CBM+ Workshop was to continue to synchronize the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command’s (RDECOM’s) CBM Strategy, which feeds the Army’s ground vehicle fleet, and to provide a forum for networking and enhancing communication for engineers, scientists and researchers from government, industry and academia.

The first day of the workshop included a government forum featuring speakers from TACOM LCMC, RDECOM, the Logistics Support Activity (LOGSA) and the Logistics Innovation Agency. The second day featured some of TARDEC’s current contractors and key TACOM LCMC original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and focused on the issues, requirements and challenges involved with implementing CBM+ across the TACOM LCMC’s ground vehicle fleet.

The workshop, which was attended by more than 200 representatives from government, business and academia, began with opening remarks from Dr. Grace M. Bochenek, TARDEC Director.

Dr. Paul Rogers, TARDEC Executive Director for Research, opened the second day with remarks at the CBM Workshop held at TARDEC. (TARDEC photo by Elizabeth Carnegie.)

“CBM is one of TARDEC’s four core technology thrust areas,” Bochenek said. “TARDEC CBM’s top three focus areas are diagnostics/prognostics, sensor integration and data warehousing, which all require an emphasis on data analysis and business tool development.” Bochenek challenged the CBM+ ground vehicle community to build a better business case and begin to do some comprehensive data analysis to determine where savings can be realized.

John Dugan, TACOM LCMC Deputy to the Commander, then spoke about the TACOM LCMC role in CBM programs. Emphasizing Bochenek’s challenges for data analysis, he asked that we find out how to partner with the OEMs and determine whether the acquired data from the vehicle is of value to CBM and, if it is, to use that data to improve reliability. He said TACOM LCMC’s approach is to base its actions on facts and not engineering estimates. Dugan also emphasized the importance of a long-term commitment to CBM and its corresponding technology.

Dr. Paul Rogers, TARDEC Executive Director for Research, emphasized the need to leverage aviation and commercial industry to support CBM and ensure commonality across the Army’s ground vehicle fleet.

Both days allotted time for discussion on a number of topics. Data analysis and data acquisition were common threads in many of the discussions. Some of the questions included: What data should be collected? How should it be analyzed? How should it be applied to develop a business case? A ground vehicle systems engineering plan discussion focused on how we need to define requirements to begin putting the plan together. No Evidence of Failures (NEoF) was another issue that came up during discussion. NEoFs occur when Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) are misdiagnosed on the vehicle. The LRU is removed and sent into the supply system even though it is still a good component with no detectable defect. NEoFs cause unnecessary strain and cost on the supply system.

Based on the workshop, a set of after-action items was developed to utilize the information gathered and to use the workshop as a starting point. These actions are in the process of being refined and developed. The actions include the following:

• Begin the process of analyzing existing vehicle data to drive future data acquisition activities and better understand failure modes on ground vehicles.
• Investigate maintenance user groups to key in on root causes for maintenance/supply issues and gain a better understanding of what would assist the end-user community.
• Collaborate with the U.S. Marine Corps CBM program (Embedded Platform Logistics System, Light Armored Vehicle).
• Begin the process of defining a CBM+ Systems Engineering Plan for the ground vehicle community.
• Create a matrix of industry partners and their capabilities.
• Investigate a Systems Engineering Plan for the CBM Data Warehouse.
• Investigate off-board test equipment data from a Maintenance Support Device.

  Speakers at the first annual CBM+ Workshop included, from left: Dr. David Gorsich, TARDEC Acting Director, Strategic Plans and Programs; Peter Haniak, PEO GCS; Dr. Grace M. Bochenek, TARDEC Director; and John Dugan, TACOM LCMC Deputy to the Commander. (TARDEC photo by Elizabeth Carnegie.)

After the conference convened, discussions were held to provide feedback and suggestions for future CBM workshops. One idea is to break the event into two stages. This suggestion is under evaluation at TARDEC.

Other speakers at the workshop included Peter Haniak, Program Executive Office (PEO) Ground Combat Systems (GCS); Elio Divito, PEO Combat Support and Combat Service Support; Cathy Jackson, TACOM Integrated Logistics Support Center; Jim Bechtel, TARDEC; Dr. David Gorsich, TARDEC Acting Director, Strategic Plans and Programs; Dr. Romeo del Rosario, Army Research Lab; Mark Bounds, U.S. Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity; Craig Hilliker, U.S. Army Future Combat Systems; Dr. Willard Stratton, LOGSA; Jonathan Dorny, Control Point Inc.; Ken Finklea, DRS Test & Energy Management Inc.; Walt Riley, Westar Aerospace & Defense Group; Dr. Doug Adams, Purdue University; Mary Nolan, VSE Corp.; Brian Dabelle, nCode International; George Wright, Honeywell; Dr. Jim Pilgrim, Pilgrim Technologies; Rick Wyrembelski, MTS Systems; Bob Kreeb, Booz Allen Hamilton; Herman Olivas, O’Neil; Stefan Herzog, Lockheed Martin Corp.; and Thomas Lytle, Solidica.

Speaker presentations are available online at http://www.tardec.info/events/CBM07/presentations.cfm.