Photo By Heather Wilburn | Matthew Sinsel, right, the production control center lead on the V-22 Osprey aircraft...... read more read more
– A team at Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) is leading the way within Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers (COMFRC) by using industry best practices to mine and analyze data, then turn that information into visualizations that can help leaders make data-driven decisions.
The maintenance, repair and overhaul operations the depot conducts on dozens of aircraft and, at any given time, hundreds of components generates an avalanche of data points, including scheduled turnaround times, material requisition status, and engineering input and instruction. To make sense of it all, the team uses Qlik Sense, a data analytics platform, to interpret the data and create reports that detail the status of in-process aircraft and components, along with all of the associated information, in a convenient display highlighting potential inhibitors that could delay production.
Analysts evaluating systems within COMFRC are looking at FRCE’s methods to provide the template for a similar process that could be used across the enterprise, FRCE Commanding Officer Col. Thomas A. Atkinson said.
“We’re proud to be at the front of this effort to broaden the use of data analytics and data visualizations within the COMFRC ecosystem, and to leverage these tools to streamline communication and advance performance at FRC East,” Atkinson said. “Integrating these tools into our day-to-day operations has played a large role in helping us reduce high-priority backorders, improve turnaround times and strengthen our financial performance over the past year and a half, and we’re excited to be able to share these improvements with the enterprise.”
Military Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Production Director Lt. Col. Jason Raper said the team developing the initiative at FRCE has focused not just on collecting and sorting the data, but applying it in a way that provides real, usable insights for the workforce.
“Our team of analysts has done great work at transforming raw data into displays that are meaningful, accessible, and help leaders make informed decisions,” he said. “They’ve put a great deal of effort into ensuring the information displayed is not just a quantitative accounting of piece parts or aircraft in process, but also a qualitative description that explains the whys behind the numbers.”
The team has been developing and refining FRCE’s use of data visualizations for about 18 months, said management analyst Jennifer Sanderson, the team lead. In that time, they have used the data analytics software to develop a sort of digital backbone for the depot, pulling information from several databases and connecting it to one location that displays all the information associated with an end item product. The data used in the analysis and visualizations comes from internal sources and from partners and stakeholders including the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and Marine Corps and Navy aviation squadrons.
Having a single resource for data that supports production outputs allows managers the time and ability to make good management decisions, Sanderson explained.
“In using data visualizations, we have provided one source of data that everybody can view and rely upon in order to make solid, data-driven decisions,” Sanderson explained. “It streamlines communication across not just our facility but also across our partners, in order to help us do a better job of identifying what our priorities should be for the day; identifying any risks or issues associated with performing any of that work today; and elevating to our management those barriers and those risks that are impeding us from performing that work.”
Taylor Forehand, an operations research analyst with the team, said using the data visualizations helps save time, as individuals seeking answers on an item’s status can now simply pull up this resource rather than spending 30 minutes pulling various reports to get the information they need.
“It’s like seeing the full puzzle in front of you, rather than having to go find all your pieces first,” she said.
In the end, this process saves labor effort on several levels and provides the workforce and leaders with a clearer picture of the item’s status in near-real time. She hopes the depot will be able to increase these time savings by increasing the number of reports that are available, meaning the data analytics software will pull data from other applications and weave it into the data stream it uses to create the visualizations. At the moment, approximately half of the source data reports that were formerly pulled by hand and downloaded into the visualization software are now automatically fed into the system.
“Instead of having to go into multiple applications to get a picture of where we stand with this end item, we have one stream of information across several database sources,” Sanderson said. “In the past, you would have had a production controller pulling information and creating reports, a planner, an engineer – what I call the ‘mandraulics’ of it – and we’ve put all those people out of the business of pulling data and freed them up to do the other things we need them to do.
“At the moment, somebody on our team still has to pull that information and download it into the software,” she continued. “However, we’ve taken steps toward having that automated, as well, and we’re hopeful that as we continue, more and more of our reports will come straight from those sources of record, the programs where the information is housed. We’re on the cusp of moving toward a near-real time scenario instead of the daily bulk data processing that we’ve been doing.”
For the general workforce, though, the data visualization process is already automated: They simply show up and pull up the display, and all the information they were getting in the old-style reports (and then some) is already generated inside the system daily for them to see, Sanderson said.
Using the data visualizations to track daily progress has helped improve efficiency on the depot’s V-22 aircraft line, said Andrew Rock, the depot’s V-22 branch head. The V-22 line was one of the first to integrate the display into daily operations.
"Having a daily data display that clearly shows the current status of each of our aircraft has allowed us to increase agility and shift priorities in a way that helps us most effectively utilize our workforce and resources,” Rock said. “Every morning, we're able to dig into any barriers that might affect turnaround time, collaborate with the team on potential solutions, and elevate issues, if necessary, while also applying our labor in the most logical manner. Using this resource to help make management decisions has helped our line make gains in key performance indicators."
As the data analytics processes mature and the depot continues to move toward an electronic work order system – an initiative that is currently early in the implementation phase – Sanderson sees the functionality of the software increasing.
“I’d like to see us getting out of the paper world altogether,” she said. “There should be an electronic place for anybody in the workforce to go and garner the information they need, and that’s where we’re going. The goal is that we’ll have all of this information in the system, all of those key risk indicators and prioritization data appropriately set, so that integration will be seamless as we move into electronic work orders.”
With the addition of new members, the team also hopes to transition the visualizations into a more predictive state that provides more measurable outcomes, as functionality improves. Currently, Sanderson said, the information is more descriptive in nature, meaning it gives a clear view of the end item’s current status, but not much in the way of accurately predicting when the item will see completion.
Sanderson said all of these improvements – providing a single source of record, increasing ease of access to relevant data, and improving efficiency – help support the three core tenets of the Naval Sustainment System (NSS): accuracy, accountability and transparency. The streamlined communication removes room for human error and improves accuracy; the visible status of items and potential production inhibitors increases transparency; and the display boosts accountability by showing who owns the tasks required to complete the end item, whether it’s an aircraft or a component.
Using data analytics to support the NSS focus areas will help FRCE continue to improve and refine processes, Raper said, and will ultimately benefit Navy and Marine Corps aviation readiness.
“In the end, it’s all about getting the best possible product back to our nation’s warfighters, in the most timely manner possible, with the greatest cost efficiency,” he said. “Using these data displays to highlight potential friction points and production inhibitors helps our leaders plan for these contingencies and make data-driven decisions that can help us minimize their impacts to production, or even avoid the issues altogether. Adding this capability to our toolbox is only going to make us faster, stronger and more efficient.”
FRCE is North Carolina's largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider, with more than 4,000 civilian, military and contract workers. Its annual revenue exceeds $1 billion. The depot provides service to the fleet while functioning as an integral part of the greater U.S. Navy; Naval Air Systems Command; and Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers.
| Date Taken: | 03.07.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.07.2022 12:36 |
| Story ID: | 415935 |
| Location: | CHERRY POINT, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 183 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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