Cost-Benefit Study of a Project to Lower Cost and Improve Fleet Readiness through Integrating the Management of Technical Information

Abstract

This paper describes a cost-benefit analysis by the Institute for Defense Analyses of the Bridge Project that ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning) is conducting for the Office of Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (OSD(AT&L) to improve the management of Integrated Logistics Support (ILS). The Project is part of the OSD RTOC program (Reduction in Total Ownership Cost). The Bridge Project focuses on integrating (Bridging) the management and production of technical manuals and training courses. The benefits would be lower cost to produce these manuals and courses in the future, and improved readiness through insuring the delivery of consistent and up-to-date logistics support to the Fleet. Manuals and courses are currently produced by entirely separate processes. Tech writers and course developers obtain contractor data on systems and equipment in parallel, they express the information in different formats, they organize the data in different structures, and they store the data in different repositories. Cost is therefore higher because of duplication of resources and the difficulties in re-using data. The lack of integration can also reduce readiness, since it opens up the possibility that the tech manuals and training courses present disparate information, thus depriving ship operators and maintainers of the most effective support. The Bridge Project seeks to relieve these problems by designing new software, technical and business processes to integrate the production of technical manuals and training courses. All technical and learning content would be expressed by the same digital specification (the S1000D industry specification), they would employ the same structure (Data Modules), and the data would all be stored in the same repositories (Common Source Data Bases, or CSDBs). The project is developing an API (Application Programming Interface) to enable course developers to exchange data with any CSDB, and a Web Service to more quickly update tech manuals and training courses in response to Engineering Change Proposals (ECPs). The analysis finds that the Bridge would achieve net benefits (benefits less costs) of approximately $87 million over 10 years, far more than enough to cover the $8.7 million 10-year cost of producing all Navy HM&E (Hull, Mechanical and Electrical) technical manuals and training courses delivered by Navy e-Learning, a part of the Naval Education and Training Command (NETC). A sensitivity analysis of the most uncertain inputs yields a range of results (net benefits) from $32 million to $166 million. The Bridge could also contribute to shipboard readiness by insuring the Navy's policy of providing up-to-date and consistent information to the Fleet upon installation of new systems and equipment. A parametric analysis indicates that by increasing the availability of the electronic, ordnance and HM&E components of a single new DDG 1000 destroyer for only a single day would increase effectiveness the Navy values at $2 million.