RFID module enhances GOLDesp

Miro will leverage Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to enhance basic warehousing functions effective with the upcoming release of GOLDesp™ v8.4.0 at year-end, thus providing customers the ability to more quickly and accurately track and manage inventory through the supply chain with the use of passive RFID tags.  

The new GOLDesp RFID module will support multiple business processes centering on the movement of material into and out of GOLDesp (receipts and shipments), the movement of material within GOLDesp (bin/location changes), and Passive RFID (pRFID) Tag maintenance, such as the commissioning, re-commissioning and decommissioning of a RFID tag and Next Higher (NH) Tag maintenance. Advanced Shipment Notice (ASN) transactions will enable the sender to provide RFID tag ID information concerning the contents and configuration of a shipment to enable more efficient receiving operations at the receiving site.

A future release of GOLDesp will also incorporate the initial phase of comprehensive Item Unique Identification (IUID) item tracking, reporting, marking and updating. This is good news, considering that the US Department of Defense (DoD) has now mandated the unique marking of parts costing $5,000 or more, or parts that are serially managed, mission essential, or controlled inventory. Although limited IUID functionality exists today in GOLD to enforce the recording of IUID data into GOLD, future IUID functionality is being planned to include reporting of IUID information to the IUID Registry either directly or through Wide Area Work Flow (WAWF).

GOLDesp will enable the direct recording of IUID data through user interaction with the application. It will produce 2D barcode labels containing the Unique Item Identifier (UII) information for use on packages, and also potentially interface with IUID marking equipment, provide either APIs or web services to receive/send IUID data, format the extracted data in a WAWF acceptable format, provide a tool that will identify records which are missing data, and provide a utility to extract all IUID data for initial reporting to the IUID Registry either directly or through WAWF. To achieve this IUID functionality, Miro has established a teaming relationship with Freedom Technologies, which will permit the integration of Freedom’s Error Proof™ IUID software with GOLDesp.

If you would like to find out more about the new GOLDesp RFID module, contact your program manager and request a copy of the GOLDesp RFID Functionality Overview (Miro-1141-R1)

DEFINITIONS

CFO Reporting & Compliance

Many GOLD customers, and all USAF Contractor Supported Weapons System (CSWS) Programs, are now required to report the value of certain categories of material and property (assets) in their possession.  In anticipation of this mandate, Miro developers are now programming new functionality into GOLDesp to accommodate this need. 

There are different reporting requirements for each of three types of material and assets: (1) Air Force ICP Equipment, (2) Air Force ICP Material, and (3) Air Force In-use Equipment.  IPC Equipment will be reported from the GOLD Material Module to the Air Force Equipment Management System (AFEMS). ICP Material will be reported by the Material Module to the General Accounting and Finance System – Re-host (GAFS-R). In-Use equipment will be reported using the GOLD Asset Module to the Air Force Equipment Management System (AFEMS).

Full CFO reporting functionality for Air Force activities will be included in the June 2008 release of GOLDesp; however, three beta sites will receive this functionality in the December 2007 release.

Watchkeeper UAV program

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has selected Miro’s Work Recording & Asset Management (WRAM Online™) system to support the Watchkeeper Tactical Unmanned Air Vehicle (TUAV) program. The scope of the MoD contract award includes licenses and software development services to support the entire fleet of 55 UAVs and 15 ground stations to be operated by the British Army Royal Artillery.

“We are delighted that the MoD has selected Miro and WRAM Online to support the Watchkeeper program,” said Vincent Monteparte, Miro’s CEO & President.

The Watchkeeper TUAV system will provide the UK armed forces with Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) capability.  The Watchkeeper system, which will enter into service in the British armed forces in 2010, will be operated in theatre by the Royal Artillery and be maintained by the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. The Watchkeeper UAV will be connected by satellite datalink to a network of containerized ground control stations, where the imagery will be analyzed and disseminated. The prime contractor for Watchkeeper is Thales UK.

Military aircraft manufacturer integrates GOLD

A major military aircraft manufacturer has now successfully integrated GOLD™ with other point solutions at its development and modification center, to manage modifications, maintenance and logistics for all military aircraft programs.  The USA-based OEM provides sophisticated engineering, design, logistics support and modifications for the United States military aircraft fleet and international customers.

The OEM’s development and modification site faced the unique challenge of developing one-off aircraft configurations from engineering concepts through flight testing and delivery of the first article.  The mod center’s unique business model required a hybrid system that combined the functionality of traditional MRO systems with a manufacturing planning engine geared toward one-of-a-kind manufacturing.  Unable to find a single, off-the-shelf system solution, the military aircraft manufacturer elected to consider some of their successful and widely used “point” solutions and integrate them.  Since GOLD was already in use at several internal sites, the OEM asked Miro to integrate GOLD with the products of some of their other suppliers and create a single integrated solution, which was dubbed “i-GOLD™.”

After spending nearly a year jointly developing a requirements specification and obtaining the appropriate contracts with Miro and the other suppliers, integration work began on this $4 million, 18 month program.  Shortly after the integration work began, the OEM opened the southwest support center and won a five-year PDM program. The i-GOLD solution was factored in as a critical component of their contract performance and more pressure was put on making i-GOLD an enterprise scale solution for all modification and maintenance sites.  At this point, emphasis shifted from the mod center’s business process requirements to those of a site doing repetitive depot-level maintenance programs.  This shift not only induced requirements shift, but also grew the program into a $30 million, five-year common system development program.

CASE STUDY

White paper explores benefits of extending, synchronizing aftermarket supply chain

A new white paper entitled “Extending the Aftermarket Supply Chain for Optimal PBL Performance” explains why significant PBL benefits will only be realized when all members of the aftermarket supply chain, from first-line maintainers to prime PBL contractors, and all sub-tier vendors “sing from the same song sheet.” This requires real-time access to integrated maintenance and supply data, total asset visibility, a complimentary set of performance metrics and automated decision support tools for optimizing decision-making. This white paper explores these interrelated issues and introduces automated tools being developed to significantly improve PBL performance by extending and synchronizing the aftermarket supply chain.

Miro Technologies has obtained permission from Frost & Sullivan to distribute this informative white paper at no cost to all recipients of this newsletter.  If you wish to download this free white paper, just click on the link below.

WHITE PAPER

Miro team active at industry conferences

The Miro team was once again high profile at recent industry conferences, particularly the Military Logistics Summit 2007 held September 10-13 in Adelphi, Maryland. Miro’s John Hayes teamed with Pete Rendek of Scientific Monitoring Inc. to conduct a pre-conference workshop during Military Logistics University’s PBL Track entitled “Modernizing Military Logistics with Predictive Maintenance Technology.”  Vincent Monteparte, President & CEO of Miro Technologies, also chaired a panel discussion within the PBL track.

Miro’s Marketing Director, Mark Ogren, conducted a special-topic seminar for Chinese airlines attending MRO Asia 2007 on October 17 in Shanghai.  The seminar topic was entitled “Moving Forward with a New Maintenance IT System:  Selection, Implementation and Deployment.”

Check out the ‘Upcoming Events’ section of this newsletter to learn where the Miro team will exhibit in November.

While in Shanghai for MRO Asia, the Miro team enjoyed a late night stroll along the famous 'Bund' on the Hangpu River. From left to right: Dennis Zhang, Hi-Key Technology (Miro's sales agent for China), Mark Ogren, Dave Purfurst and Vincent Monteparte of Miro Technologies, and Oak Hur, Osung Aero Engineering (Miro’s sales agent for Korea and Japan).