Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM): A Working Partnership between Government, Industry, and Academia
Abstract
While a large number of partnerships form as defensive measures in response to fierce global competition, distress over future uncertainties, and a lack of alternative methods to ensure continued survival, synergistic partnerships are characterized as being cooperative learning experiences that benefit all the parties involved. The best partnerships are those that develop into strategic alliances helping to capture and create value that would otherwise have been difficult to realize if not for the mutually shared goals and resources of the partnership. In this paper, we discuss how government, industry, and academia are able to converge upon a new maintenance paradigm aimed at benefiting our nation's military forces. In particular, representatives from all three domains are working together to determine how condition-based maintenance (CBM) can best serve U.S. Army aviation and bolster our soldiers engaged in the war against terrorism. Described as is a set of maintenance processes and capabilities aimed at improving U.S. Army aviation fleet's operational readiness and reducing soldiers' maintenance burden, CBM leverages advanced technologies to help generate enhanced diagnostics for key components on-board a select number of AH-64 Apache, UH-60 Blackhawk, and CH-47 Chinook helicopters. The near real-time assessment of data from the embedded sensors seeks to provide the U.S. Army with a more effective and efficient way to conduct maintenance based on need rather than scheduled periods, the capability to perform supply chain actions in a more proactive manner, and the ability to optimize the competing demands of warfighting and planned maintenance. In short, CBM attempts to improve the way the U.S. Army approaches maintenance, transforming it from the industrial age of the 20th Century into the information age of this new century.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA449019
Entities
People
- Ernest Y. Wong
- Simon R. Goerger
- Stephen E. Gauther
Organizations
- United States Military Academy