By Jim Jenkins
Aging Aircraft Enterprise Team

NAVAIR engineers and logisticians are working together for the common good, stovepipes are crumbling and swim lanes are being crossed.

The roots of NAVAIR’s Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS) Working Group (WG) are now firmly taking hold. The participants of this group, after ironing out the details, are getting down to business.

The NAVAIR DMSMS WG, led by the Aging Aircraft Enterprise Division (4.1.2) and the Design Interface and Maintenance Planning Division (6.7.1), was established to serve as an enabler for program teams in developing a synergism for mitigating the affects of DMSMS. This is accomplished by filtering down Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Navy (DoN) and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Logistics (DASN-L) policy, defining processes for coordinating DMSMS mitigation strategies with Technology Roadmaps, providing training opportunities and identifying barriers. It also serves as a forum for NAVAIR DMSMS socialization.

The NAVAIR DMSMS WG’s goal is to establish a standardized NAVAIR “Best Practices” process to help all programs develop a “Best Method” in addressing DMSMS matters. To accomplish this, the WG brought together personnel from virtually every NAVAIR program office to share information and experiences in relation to DMSMS. By sharing information such as the challenges facing the various programs, their successes, barriers, and most importantly, lessons learned, the WG is establishing a synergy among the programs in an effort to make DMSMS problem-solving a more efficient process for all NAVAIR.

“The Aging Aircraft Enterprise Division has been a leader in the Department of Navy's efforts in implementing Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition (ASN(RD&A)] policies and guidance in mitigating the risk of DMSMS,” said Capt. Joe Spruill, Chief of Staff for DASN-L. “Their efforts in providing direct support to NAVAIR program offices to proactively manage DMSMS, as well as providing DMSMS awareness and mitigation training have undoubtedly resulted in significant cost avoidance throughout NAVAIR as well as the entire Navy Department.”

Representatives from 90 percent of NAVAIR’s programs are meeting on the second Thursday of every month in the Wyle Labs Conference Center to discuss DMSMS matters and share information.

A big issue, and one of the first to be tackled for the respective programs, was how to incorporate Program Objectives Memorandum (POM) planning processes for their DMSMS matters. The February WG meeting included a “POM Planning for DMSMS” presentation from Ezell “T” Westbrook, Aging Aircraft Non-Program Related Engineering financial management support, who explained Air Systems Support Requirements Determination process. Each program is required to POM for DMSMS money separately from their other POM efforts. POM10 is the first opportunity for the programs to report their complete DMSMS funding requirements. In attendance was John McKendrew, Air System Support Team Lead, who provided inputs for the presentation and was there to answer any questions.

Previous meetings have included briefings from NAVSEA officials concerning the Obsolescence Management Information System, the DASN-L staff, the Tomahawk Weapons Control program, and various companies demonstrating tools that help with obsolescence management.

“I think Navy in general and NAVAIR in particular are poised to achieve great results in pursuit of efforts to mitigate the impact of DMSMS because they have policy, strategy, implementation and oversight in alignment,” said John Becker, Chairman, DoD DMSMS WG. “The only thing left for Navy to do is the hard part of getting programs to change their ways. That takes a dedication to the oversight process that is well established and showing more positive results with every week.”

NAVAIR’s DMSMS WG has proven successful since it was implemented. Since September, the NAVAIR community has been provided more than 2,000 man-hours of DMSMS training through the following instructor-led Defense Acquisition University (DAU) courses: DMSMS Fundamentals, DMSMS for Executives, DLA Essentials and DMSMS Case Studies.

These courses are very much in demand, according to Howard Pinnell, Aging Aircraft DMSMS technical analyst. Working Group members will soon be able to take the DMSMS for the Technical Professional and Logistician courses, as well.

In addition to those courses, more than 40 NAVAIR DMSMS WG members have been trained in using the LOGPARS DMSMS Plan Generator tool which is said to be as simple as the popular TurboTax program to fill out and complete. The LOGPARS DMSMS Plan Generator tool helps members draft their program DMSMS Management Plan that, if filled out correctly, fulfills all of the DASN-L requirements.

Along those same lines, the newly created NAVAIR DMSMS Reference book is considered by many in the NAVAIR community as the bible for WG participants as it teaches, in a step-by-step process, how to create and manage DMSMS programs, plans and metrics. The Reference book is a compilation of DoD and DoN DMSMS directives, policies, procedures, guidebooks and resources.

“This material provides the DMSMS program manager with a desktop reference to quickly pinpoint key documents required in managing DMSMS issues and concerns,” said Robin Brown, Aging Aircraft DMSMS management analyst.

Cross communicating is perhaps the biggest benefit the NAVAIR DMSMS WG has to offer. No program should go it alone, since many of the piece parts and some of the larger components and systems used in Navy aircraft are common to one another. If one program has already researched a DMSMS issue, another program doesn’t have to repeat the same research to solve its issue.

“In the respect to network and meet other teams that are working obsolescence issues the [DMSMS WG has been helpful],” said Belinda Rhoten, of PMA-209’s Legacy Avionics Systems Team. “It has been a benefit for us to meet with other people and make points of contact.”

It’s about working together for the common good and sharing knowledge. Not only has the WG succeeded to break down barriers within NAVAIR, but the Aging Aircraft DMSMS Team is helping the Marine Corps establish an infantry-related WG of their own, and collaborating with the Air Force sharing all obsolescence case data to piggy back on each services successes.

“The biggest benefit to the WG is for programs to identify their barriers and frustrations in dealing with DMSMS,” said Ric Loeslein, Aging Aircraft DMSMS Team Lead. “As a WG, we are able to learn from each other in addressing and eliminating these issues. We all understand that mitigating DMSMS requires teamwork between logistics and engineering disciplines”

The next NAVAIR DMSMS WG meeting is scheduled for March 8 from 8:30 to 11 a.m. in the Wyle Labs Conference Center. For more information contact Robin Brown at 301-342-2181 or e-mail [email protected].