Customer Success Story
Veridian Engineering
The U.S. Army calls on PIMSOL and Deltek WelcomHome™ to reduce program costs and improve efficiency
The Challenge
The U.S. Army's Aviation Reset Program was established under the direction of the Army Material Command in April 2003 to track and manage the inspection, repair and overhaul of the helicopter fleet deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Operating on a rigorous schedule, the Reset program's mission is to restore and return to combat more than 1,500 helicopters—Chinooks, Apaches, Black Hawks and Kiowa Warriors—by the end of 2005, with the program continuing as long as necessary. With repair completions ranging from 34 to 200-plus days and numerous Reset facilities from which to choose, the Aviation Reset Program Management Office needed a system to help them determine the most expedient way to return the aircraft to pre-war conditions and back into combat.
With 14 reset sites located in the U.S. and Germany as well as several National Guard sites—all with varying capabilities—and a constant rotation of four different types of helicopters from Iraq and Afghanistan in various states of disrepair, Col. Woolery and his team needed a way to determine where to send each helicopter based on its damages and the facility's capability and backlog. By running “what-if” scenarios taking into account each aircraft's assigned “must complete” date, they would be able to select the facility that could best refurbish and return each helicopter back to the field by the deadline.
The Solution
To solve the problem, Col. Woolery and his team turned to Deltek customer PIMSOL, a Huntsville, Alabama-based systems integrator with a successful track record of creating custom program and project management solutions for its aerospace and defense customers. Having recently developed a web-based program management tool based on WelcomHome for the U.S. Army, PIMSOL already had a platform that could be adapted for use by the Aviation Reset Program resulting in a quick turnaround. The Army contracted with PIMSOL in July 2004 and was rewarded with an operational system the following month.
That solution is the Program Control System II Reset (PCS II Reset), a web-based portal consisting of the application, database and supporting network infrastructure to manage the logistics and maintenance of combat helicopters. PIMSOL elected to build the PCSII Reset program using Deltek's WelcomHome project collaboration portal as the framework.
“The U.S. government rarely can use commercially-available products as information system type solutions, because they don't fit their unique needs and way of doing business,” said Rick Curns, president of PIMSOL.
“We chose WelcomHome as the framework for PCSII Reset and adapted it to support government processes because it already had many of the capabilities we needed,” said Curns.
According to Curns, WelcomHome has an imbedded structure that allows PIMSOL to set up user access based on their role(s) and the group(s) that they will be interacting as and belong to, and it provides the navigational framework for the entire application. Moreover, it accommodates custom data views and the displays that customers often want incorporated into the application. Finally, WelcomHome imbeds all of the necessary functions for project collaboration, while giving PIMSOL the flexibility to build in custom features that the system integrator's non-conventional project management organizations always require.
The PSC II Reset application automates the tasks of data collection, data verification, information analysis and report building to save program costs by eliminating man-hours previously spent on these tasks. It also allows decision makers and facilitators to see information easily in many different combinations. The ability to rapidly and accurately analyze valid data has led to improved decision-making and the ability to react quicker, thus reducing “shop” time for aircraft. PSC II Reset accomplishes this by providing a single secure system for data integration, analysis, action tracking and reporting. Access is available via a Web interface to local and remote users based on their roles and privileges. “One of the most important benefits for us is that PSC II Reset is a secure Web-based system that allows authorized users to view the same data from different portions of our program,” said Col. Woolery.
It “pushes” and “pulls” information from a central database, and allows program managers to input schedule-related data down to the Aviation Reset repair sites. Managers can see both the status of “pending” aircraft inductions to a repair facility and of those aircraft already undergoing repair and maintenance. The schedule also provides a drill down function that allows filtering by model, aircraft tail numbers, repair site, unit and date. Further, it provides Army command staff and program managers with easy access to executive overviews of up-to-the-minute work-in-progress through a variety of data views, reports and digital dashboard displays.
The Benefits
After just a few months of use, managers for the Aviation Reset Program are realizing clear benefits from using PIMSOL's PCS II Reset system. For example, unit maintenance officers use PCS II Reset to check the “reset” status of their aircraft and projected return dates. This live status information can be checked and monitored daily within seconds, instead of conducting time-consuming telephone calls and relying on outdated information.
| The Challange | The Solution | The Deltek Advantage |
| The Army's Aviation Reset Program needed a system to determine the fastest way to repair and return to combat more than 1,500 helicopters deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. | The U.S. Army chose Deltek WelcomHome's project collaboration portal that would help them reduce the time and labor needed to “reset” combat aircraft and return them to the field. |
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The Aviation Reset Program managers have also seen other efficiency benefits. The first of these is the increase in mission performance gained from having accurate information readily accessible and easy to analyze, resulting in improved decision making. The ability to perform “what if” schedule analysis to evaluate work cycle and throughput time for each repair facility makes it much easier for program managers to select the best facility to repair each helicopter.
“We save time a lot of time using the “what-if” scheduling utility to plan ahead for aircraft induction,” said Ricky Dillon, a civilian Aviation Reset program manager on contract from Avion. “Prior to the PCS II Reset system, this exercise would involve many hours per week and would primarily depend on guesswork. Using PCS II Reset, we can run multiple induction scenarios in minutes based on real data.”
In addition, automated e-mail alerts inform managers of problems and conflicts, allowing for more timely corrective action. And, finally, the PSC II Reset application has established conformity and standards both within the Reset program and those external to Reset who use the information.
An unforeseen advantage of using the PSC II Reset system is that it has stimulated a continuous improvement cycle for the Aviation Reset Program's processes. According to Ricky Dillon, one of the biggest benefits of PCS II Reset is that it provides a single source for all program data, which has facilitated “cross leveling” between reset sites.
“With the PCS II Reset system, everyone sees the same information,” said Dillon. “For example, we can more easily locate available parts and tools. Having this information available initiates communication between reset sites and leads to the transfer of spare parts and tools to the locations where they are needed for immediate repairs. Now, instead of automatically requisitioning new parts and tools, program managers first access the inventory through the PCS II Reset system, which has resulted in a considerable cost savings and a significant program process change.”
PCS II Reset has also made program briefings easier and more accurate. Each week, the commanding general of the Aviation Reset Program is given program summary data extracted from the PSC II Reset system to brief senior Army leadership. In addition, he and Department of the Army senior commanding officers at the Pentagon have easy access to program status and information via the PCS II Reset Web portal. Within seven months of use by more than 150 Aviation Reset Program employees and contractors located in “Reset” sites and offices around the world, the PSC II Reset application was producing a quantifiable return on investment.
The total labor savings is estimated to top more than $1 million over a three-year period. This savings stems from automated report generation and briefings, the generation of Executive Summaries and Ad-Hoc queries, performance of “what if” analysis. The total calculable man-hour savings seven months into the program was 3,880 or just short of two man-years in labor savings, resulting in a cost savings of $329,800 in year one, and an estimated savings of $725,560 over the next two years.
About U.S. Army - Aviation Reset Program
Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, the Aviation Reset Program is run by the Aviation & Missile Command, which is one of five commands reporting to the Army Material Command. Managed by Col. Ray Woolery, the program employs military and civilian employees and civilian Department of Defense contractors to manage day-today operations and more than 1,600 technicians.
