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6 Demonstration and Validation
Pages 97-109

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From page 97...
... national defense. Although the Army would not necessarily be precluded from reverting back to today's "manual" methods of producing munitions if the system failed, significant benefits of the integrated enterprise, especially faster response at lower cost in the event of national need, would likely result in increasing national reliance on its capabilities.
From page 98...
... project, selection and execution of demonstration projects appears to be one of the strongest aspects of the TIME program. For the most part, TIME has chosen projects that could be quickly brought to fruition or that incorporated pieces of technology that had a significant head start before the TIME program began.
From page 99...
... Each of these demonstration projects has scheduled milestones ancl specific technology objectives. Many of these projects consist of a 1-year primary thrust plus scheduled follow-on tasks that extend beyond the initial clemonstrations.
From page 100...
... This demonstration project was initially planned for early in the TIME program but is now in the planning phase. Scranton/GMPT Product Data Exchange This is one of an ongoing series of demonstration projects being conducted at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant that are clesigned to gradually integrate the facility into the munitions enterprise.
From page 101...
... The committee noted that this demonstration project served to identify an issue that TIME thus far does not appear to have addressed, that of design and fabrication of custom metalworking tools and dies. Most of TlME's metalworking efforts to date have dealt with relatively straightforward metal removal and shaping using readily available COTS tools for cutting, knurling, grinding, facing, boring, and drilling on mills and lathes.
From page 102...
... This is causing the cost of producing energetic materials to reach unafforclable levels, necessitating significant changes within the industrial base to maintain a viable energetics production capability in the United States. In response to the current business environment, efforts to develop new energetics materials, and a trend toward "designer munitions," the industrial base must be modified to costeffectively produce a wider variety of new and existing products in smaller quantities.
From page 103...
... The project successfully demonstrated the use of modeling and simulation tools for product and process development, including modeling the crystallization process and determining the critical relationship between physical and chemical characteristics of the material on a microscopic scale and correlating these to bulk characteristics on in-process and end-product materials. The TIME network will be used to link the model to both the bulk laboratory experiments and the production of CL-20 The TIME nrc~ar~m has already , _ _ _ , `:, , successfully demonstrated the continuous production of small batch lots of energetics at remote sites using real-time monitoring and control from a central location.
From page 104...
... With the completion of these projects, the concept of transferring metal removal operation processes from existing metal part producers to a commercial site and the concept of using commercial nondefense producers for expansion of capability for replenishment purposes will have been demonstrated. Conclusion: The TIME program is to be commended for its focus on demonstration projects as a means to try out complex integrated enterprise systems in a rea~-~ife environment and as a means to identify potential problems prior to full implementation and use.
From page 105...
... Such validation could, in many cases, consume more time and resources than were required to initially develop and demonstrate the technologies. However, the committee believes that it is important for the TIME program and the Army to identify potential limitations and vu~nerabilities that may be inacivertent~y built into the integrated munitions enterprise upon which the United States will base a significant portion of its national security.
From page 106...
... Appropriate validation of a massive, highly complex system, such as the munitions enterprise, requires attention to myriad details, concepts, ancl challenges. For example, capture ancl effective dissemination of knowledge is essential, especially for rapid replenishment.
From page 107...
... Since the LLNE OMAC version will be "open" as in the Unix model, to which version of the core controller functionality will controller acid-on applications providers be writing cocle? The answer can perhaps be found in the operating system "wars." They will write applications for the core functionality that ho~cis the biggest market share.
From page 108...
... has iclentified flaws in frequently used engineering design ancl manufacturing techniques, such as quality function deployment, the Taguchi Loss Function, and the Pugh Selection Matrix, that can result in conflicting or misleading answers. Similar questions have been raised regarding the models ancl simulations used in engineering design ancl analysis as well as frequently used ERP, supply chain management, ancl other computer systems that may well form part of the backbone of the integrated munitions enterprise.
From page 109...
... It is also extremely important that the system be regularly exercised to identify and resolve problems as participants are added and removed from the enterprise and as individual computer systems change or migrate to newer versions. Recommendation: The va~iclation projects of the TIME program should be subject to review by DoD managers at an appropriate level to assess the projects' contributions to the management of munitions across all military services so that appropriate program changes can be made to assure that the services needs are met.


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