Fleet Readiness Center Mid-Atlantic (FRCMA) and Navy Warfare Development Command (NWDC) key leaders met Oct. 6 to discuss the next moves for the newly launched Statistically Driven Maintenance Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) program. The meeting included (right back to counterclockwise around table) Mr. Paul Thayer, Chief of Naval Operations Rapid Innovation Cell (CRIC) data collector; Ms. Cameron Cooper, CRIC operations research/systems analyst (ORSA); Cmdr. Francini Clemmons, FRCMA Oceana maintenance officer; Capt. Keith Nixon, FRCMA executive officer; Capt. Joe Rodriguez, FRCMA commander; Cmdr. Ben Salazar, chief of NWDC's Rapid Innovation Division; John Morrison, SMART assistant program manager/data collector; and Alyssa Maloney, ORSA/data collector.
FRC Mid-Atlantic gets SMART on readiness, sustainment
FLEET READINESS CENTER MID-ATLANTIC, OCEANA, Va. -- Even with shrinking budgets, Vice Adm. Paul Grosklags, Commander, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), stresses his organization’s mission -- to provide full life-cycle support of Naval Aviation aircraft, weapons and systems operated by Sailors and Marines on time, on cost, with proven capability and reliability so they succeed in every mission and return safely home – remains unchanged. NAVAIR works to continuously improve the way it delivers capabilities to the warfighter and must adapt and pace today’s fiscal, technological and operational realities.
That is why representatives from the Naval Warfare Development Command (NWDC), headquartered at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, visited Fleet Readiness Center Mid-Atlantic (FRCMA) Oct. 6 to launch one of their newest innovation projects, the Statistically Driven Maintenance Analysis and Reporting Technology, or SMART. NWDC develops and integrates innovative solutions to complex naval warfare challenges to enhance current and future warfighting capabilities, according to the Navy’s website. SMART is an intuitive web-based program that uses detailed algorithms along with information gathered from the Decision Knowledge Programming for Logistics Analysis and Technical Evaluation (DECKPLATE) database and uses historical maintenance data to troubleshoot and to identify failure trends.
The pilot program at FRCMA, led by Petty Officer 1st Class Richard Walsh, an aviation electronics technician at FRCMA, will be conducted during the next six months in the F/A-18 Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared RADAR (ATFLIR) and Generator Converter Unit (GCU) work centers located at FRCMA Oceana.
There are 10 laptops loaded with the program across the three pilot work centers with an average of 28 technicians a day using the program as a troubleshooting aid. Each work center will collect data at scheduled intervals for detailed performance evaluation. Currently, more than 90 Sailors have been trained on the use of SMART.
Upon completion of the pilot, NWDC will determine if it should be expanded throughout intermediate level maintenance and to more maintenance levels, such as Organizational and Depot.
The pilot program is still underway and preliminary feedback is extremely positive. The future holds immense potential and will surely prove that the web-based program can be used effectively as it grows and expands with only minimal training.