ERP brings NAVAIR real-time information with one integrated system

Submitted by the NAVAIR Public Affairs Office, Pax River

If a program manager needed to know how many aircraft were currently at the depots for overhaul or what their configuration was going in and coming out, it would take several phone calls to gather and compile data before he or she could get an answer. Most likely, it would be an outdated answer at that.

With an Enterprise Resource Planning system, the PM could hop on his desktop computer, click a few boxes on his corporate portal and the information would be there, ready to answer the data call with as little latency as possible.

ERP is coming, and it’s bringing the Naval Air Systems Command accurate real-time information in one integrated system. This new process-centered software will give employees the ability to see inside their programs with near real-time capability.

The term Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) refers to commercially available business software solutions that enable organizations, such as NAVAIR, to automate and integrate business processes, share common data and processes across the entire organization, produce and access information in a near real-time environment and provide consistent information for timely decision-making and performance measurement.

Asset visibility is only one of the many features that an ERP system will integrate once implemented. Aspects of maintenance and materials management, acquisition management, human resources and financials will also be included in the process redesign.

The Department of the Navy has approved four pilot programs to study the scope of what an ERP system could encompass. Pilots for Program Management, Aviation Supply Chain/Maintenance Management, Warfare Center Management, and Regional Maintenance and Workforce Management will prove the feasibility of an ERP system for the Navy.

NAVAIR established the Enterprise Solutions Program Office in June 1999, to oversee and facilitate its pilot initiatives. According to Dennis Distler, director of the ESPO, the pilot is the best way to minimize the risks inherent in implementing a full-scale ERP system.

"We’re doing the pilots to mitigate some of the risks associated with implementing a system of this magnitude," Distler said. "We’re taking a relatively conservative approach."

Part of that conservative approach has been to gather as much information on ERP as possible. This has included visits to other government agencies that have successfully implemented ERP systems, such as the Military Sealift Command and the Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma, Tenn. The team has also benchmarked members of industry such as IBM, American Airlines, General Electric and Union Carbide to share industry ERP lessons learned.

NAVAIR is the lead command on the Program Management pilot, which will look closely at weapon systems acquisition, financial management, asset tracking, and configuration management. The E-2C Hawkeye program office (PMA-231) will be the source for the data set used in the pilot.

In partnership with the Naval Supply Systems Command, NAVAIR is also working on the Aviation Supply Chain/ Maintenance Management pilot. This pilot is designed to study how an ERP system would encompass material requirements, vendor/supply management, transportation/distribution maintenance management and financial management.

In early February, the NAVAIR TEAM chose KPMG to be its solution provider. Its principal partners are IBM and SAIC and, the core ERP package in their solution is SAP.

With ERP, NAVAIR will implement a better way of doing business and provide better information in a near real-time environment, which will enable the TEAM and other aviation stakeholders to make better business decisions.