Establishing An Additive Manufacturing (AM) Navy Enlisted Classification For The Machinery Repairman To Enable Efficient Use Of AM And Mass Adoption Of The Technology
Abstract
Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology has been making significant advances in recent years. While industry has already started exploiting it in its daily operations, the adoption and implementation of AM technology across the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of the Navy (DoN) are still in very early stages. The major value that DoD and DoN plan to achieve are improvements in operational readiness, cost-savings, and increases in warfighting capability. The DoN has yet to identify the elements of a comprehensive training program across the fleet, including the training of operational level users. Should a Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) be created for the Machinery Repairman (MR) rating to ensure safe and competent use of AM technology? Does creating an NEC support DoD and DoN policies and guidelines for AM implementation? This report examines those questions and provides a rationale and recommendations for the creation of an AM NEC, including a set of critical skills that should be a part of that training. Methodology developed and used in this report could be applied to examine the needs of other rates beyond MR. Recommended future work emphasizes the need to continue updating the training program recommended in this report, keeping it relevant with advances made in AM technology and our growing understanding about DoN applications of this technology.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1080236
Entities
People
- Bradford L. Edenfield
- Gilbert Jr Garcia
- Kazuma Yoshida
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School