Browse Topic: Logistics
The automotive industry is facing unprecedented pressure to reduce costs without compromising on quality and performance, particularly in the design and manufacturing. This paper provides a technical review of the multifaceted challenges involved in achieving cost efficiency while maintaining financial viability, functional integrity, and market competitiveness. Financial viability stands as a primary obstacle in cost reduction projects. The demand for innovative products needs to be balanced with the need for affordable materials while maintaining structural integrity. Suppliers’ cost structures, raw material fluctuations, and production volumes must be considered on the way to obtain optimal costs. Functional aspects lead to another layer of complexity, once changes in design or materials should not compromise safety, durability, or performance. Rigorous testing and simulation tools are indispensable to validate changes in the manufacturing process. Marketing considerations are also
Design validation plays a crucial role in the overall cost and time allocation for product development. This is especially evident in high-value manufacturing sectors like commercial vehicle electric drive systems or e-axles, where the expenses related to sample procurement, testing complexity, and diverse requirements are significant. Validation methodologies are continuously evolving to encompass new technologies, yet they must be rigorously evaluated to identify potential efficiencies and enhance the overall value of validation tests. Simulation tools have made substantial advancements and are now widely utilized in the development phase. The integration of simulation-based or simulation-supported validation processes can streamline testing timelines and sample quantities, all the while upholding quality standards and minimizing risks when compared to traditional methods. This study examines various scenarios where the implementation of advanced techniques has led to a reduction in
LIDAR-based autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are gradually being used for gas detection in industries. They detect tiny changes in the composition of the environment in indoor areas that is too risky for humans, making it ideal for the detection of gases. This current work focusses on the basic aspect of gas detection and avoiding unwanted accidents in industrial sectors by using an AMR with LIDAR sensor capable of autonomous navigation and MQ2 a gas detection sensor for identifying the leakages including toxic and explosive gases, and can alert the necessary personnel in real-time by using simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm and gas distribution mapping (GDM). GDM in accordance with SLAM algorithm directs the robot towards the leakage point immediately thereby avoiding accidents. Raspberry Pi 4 is used for efficient data processing and hardware part accomplished with PGM45775 DC motor for movements with 2D LIDAR allowing 360° mapping. The adoption of LIDAR-based AMRs
Heavy-duty vehicles, particularly those towing higher weights, require a continuous/secondary braking system. While conventional vehicles employ Retarder or Engine brake systems, electric vehicles utilize recuperation for continuous braking. In a state where HV Battery is at 100% of SOC, recuperated energy from vehicle operation is passed on to HPR and it converts electrical energy into waste heat energy. This study focuses on identification of routes which are critical for High Power Brake Resistors (HPRs), by analyzing the elevation data of existing charging stations, the route’s slope distribution, and the vehicle’s battery SOC. This research ultimately suggests a method to identify HPR critical vehicle operational routes which can be useful for energy efficient route planning algorithms, leading to significant cost savings for customers and contributing to environmental sustainability
This SAE Aerospace Standard (AS) identifies the requirements for mitigating Counterfeit EEE parts in the Authorized Distribution Channel. If an organization is not performing Authorized Distribution but acting as another seller (such as an Authorized Reseller, Broker, or Independent Distributor), then only 3.3.1 applies
A new aviation supply chain integrity coalition has offered 13 recommended actions to prevent the circulation of non-serialized aircraft parts throughout the global aviation industry. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL In the summer of 2023, a receiving clerk in the procurement department of TAP Air Portugal, a Lisbon-based airline, made a curious discovery: A $65 engine part that should have appeared brand-new showed signs of significant wear. The clerk checked the documentation from the London-based parts supplier and noticed that the submitted documentation was also suspicious. Using his safety training, the employee immediately reported the anomaly to TAP Air Portugal management, which raised the issue with the jet engine's manufacturer. Little did the procurement clerk know at the time, but this escalation led to one of the biggest investigations in the history of the aviation supply chain, as reported by Reuters and the British Broadcasting Corporation in
This specification covers metric aircraft quality spacers for use as positioners for tubes, flat washers for use as load spreaders, galling protection of adjacent surfaces and or material compatibility, and key or tab washers for use as locks for bolts, nuts, and screws
ABSTRACT In order to assess a design from a supportability perspective early in a technology’s prototyping phase, TARDEC’s Systems Engineering Directorate has established a Design for Supportability (DfS) competency. This competency, under the SE umbrella, encompasses the relationship between Design for Reliability (DfR), Design for Maintainability (DfM), and Design for Logistics (DfL). The combination of DfR, DfM and DfL form a trifecta of knowledge that determines whether a developing technology will: 1) perform its intended function for the complete duration of the mission it’s designed for; 2) be designed in a way to be fixable in a reasonable amount of time using standard tools; 3) be designed to have replaceable parts as accessible as possible; 4) not increase the logistics burden for our men and women in uniform
ABSTRACT To support customers during product development, General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) utilizes a set of Operations Research/Decision Support processes and tools to facilitate all levels of decision-making aimed at achieving a balanced system design. GDLS employs a rigorous Structured Decision (SD) process that allows for large, highly complex or strategic decisions to be made at the system-of-systems, system, and/or subsystem level. Powerful, robust tools -the Advanced Collaborative System Optimization Modeler (ACSOM) and Logical Decisions for Windows (LDW) - are used to make relatively quick assessments and provide recommendations. The latest ACSOM algorithms have increased the response time for trade study analysis by over 2,000 times and future versions will incorporate logistics analysis helping to reduce vehicle Life Cycle Cost
ABSTRACT The DoD Digital Engineering Strategy [1] released in June 2018 outlined the DoD’s strategic goals which “promote the use of digital artifacts as a technical means of communication across a diverse set of stakeholders” In addition to build, test, field and sustainment of defense systems, emphasis was placed on the acquisition and procurement of systems and the importance of digital engineering. This was further reinforced in the Feb 2022 release of the Engineering of Defense Systems Guidebook [2] which contains Digital Engineering sections in each chapter. The norm for Systems Engineering has become Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) in which models are used at all phases of development. To complete the digital thread from concept to disposal, models will be required for the acquisition phase. This paper will describe Model-Based Acquisition (MBAcq), and how it can be used to increase clarity compliance and understanding in Capability Systems and Software Acquisition for
ABSTRACT Automatic guided vehicles (AGV) have made big inroads in the automation of assembly plants and warehouse operations. There are thousands of AGV units in operation at OEM supplier and service facilities worldwide in virtually every major manufacturing and distribution sector. Although today’s AGV systems can be reconfigured and adapted to meet changes in operation and need, their adaptability is often limited because of inadequacies in current systems. This paper describes a wireless navigated (WN) omni-directional (OD) autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) that incorporates three technical innovations that address the shortfalls. The AGV features consist of: 1) A newly developed integrated wireless navigation technology to allow rapid rerouting of navigation pathways; 2) Omnidirectional wheels to move independently in different directions; 3) Modular space frame construction to conveniently resize and reshape the AGV platform. It includes an overview of the AGVs technical features
ABSTRACT Product Development (PD) remains a highly uncertain process for both commercial and DoD programs. The presence of multiple stakeholders (e.g., DoD and allied agencies, soldiers/users, PEO, contractors, manufacturing, service, logistics) with varying requirements, preferences, constraints, and evolving priorities make this particularly challenging for the DoD. These risks are well recognized by agencies, and it is widely understood that acquisition is about risk management and not certainties. However, almost all the DoD acquisition processes still require critical reviews, and most importantly, structured decision support for the fuzzy front-end of the acquisition process. What is lacking, are effective decision support tools that explicitly recognize the sequential milestone structure embedded with multi-stakeholder decision making in all acquisition programs. We describe the Resilient Program Management & Development (RPMD) framework to support complex decision making with
ABSTRACT An increasing pace of technology advancements and recent heavy investment by potential adversaries has eroded the Army’s overmatch and spurred significant changes to the modernization enterprise. Commercial ground vehicle industry solutions are not directly applicable to Army acquisitions because of volume, usage and life cycle requirement differences. In order to meet increasingly aggressive schedule goals while ensuring high quality materiel, the Army acquisition and test and evaluation communities need to retain flexibility and continue to pursue novel analytic methods. Fully utilizing test and field data and incorporating advanced techniques, such as, big data analytics and machine learning can lead to smarter, more rapid acquisition and a better overall product for the Soldier. Logistics data collections during operationally relevant events that were originally intended for the development of condition based maintenance procedures in particular have been shown to provide
ABSTRACT Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control has developed a robotic site shuttle for use in structured areas, such as commercial railroad yards, port operations and storage/distribution industries. The purpose of the site shuttle is to provide an autonomous taxi service for personnel needing to move to various locations around the facilities. Many rail yards, ports and storage area are very large, so “taxi” transportation is vital to maintain efficiency and safety. The shuttle vehicles operate in complete autonomy: they have no steering wheel, accelerator or brake pedal. Personnel using the vehicles have only emergency stop buttons in the front and rear of the vehicles. Once implemented, the robotic shuttles will considerably reduce the costs of operation for the company. This need is consistent throughout the rail, port and storage/distribution industries, as all need to move personnel around their yards
Abstract The paper will provide representative simulations of particle transport around a vehicle in order to investigate some of the issues related to the accurate prediction of emission and transport of particles induced by a moving vehicle with a transverse blowing wind. Special treatments in boundary conditions and wall law function are discussed and applied to maintain the shape of atmospheric boundary layer wind velocity profile. For the vehicle, we adopt the geometry of a Nissan Pathfinder SUV to study the effects of vehicle emission and transport around a moving vehicle. We perform a set of simulations to better understand the modeling requirements for dust emissions including a sensitivity study to determine the modeling parameters that are most important for accurate modeling of dust generation and transport. In particular, we study the effects of location, size distribution, and initial velocity distributions of the modeled dust emissions on predicted downwind atmospheric
ABSTRACT Power and energy demands on military vehicles and other large systems have been increasing significantly and modifications to these power systems are being explored on several programs. A key decision in a new power system is determining whether to use “high voltage” or “low voltage” for distribution throughout the vehicle. This decision has far reaching consequences throughout the vehicle and needs to be made after careful consideration. This paper addresses key trade-off criteria for consideration when comparing high voltage and low voltage vehicle architectures and then addresses a few other considerations for this type of decision
ABSTRACT Acquisition programs typically develop a set of system requirements early in their lifecycle, which then become the standard against which future designs are evaluated. It is critical that these requirements be set at appropriate levels. Requirement sets that are not simultaneously achievable are a relatively common problem in military acquisition programs and often are not recognized until significant investment has already been made – sometimes even leading to program cancellation. The Advanced Requirements Integration & Exploration System (ARIES) is designed to aid program stakeholders in understanding the requirements trade space for a system and facilitate the identification of an achievable set of requirements. This paper presents the ARIES methodology, describes the analytic capability, and discusses its application. Citation: A.I. Dessanti, D.J. Anderson, S.M. Henry, A.J. Pierson, R.S. Agusti, M.A. Zabat, “Advanced Requirements Integration & Exploration System (ARIES
ABSTRACT Leveraging an open standard may still not achieve the desired interoperability between systems. Addressing “lessons learned” from past implementations of open standards for various Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition programs is critical for future success. This paper discusses past issues which range from insufficient technical detail, when and how to apply a given specification, verification of an implementation’s compliance, to inconsistent and imprecise contractual language. This paper illustrates how the Vehicular Integration for C4ISR/EW Interoperability (VICTORY) initiative addresses these challenges to enable interoperability on Army ground vehicles, as well as facilitate rapid technology insertion and incorporation of new capabilities. VICTORY represents a leap ahead in solving interoperability challenges and defining open standards
ABSTRACT The military has a need to source propulsion systems that have enhanced efficiencies, lower noise signatures, and improved lifetimes over existing power systems. This is true for energy storage systems on unmanned ground vehicles and for manned vehicles (i.e., Auxiliary Power Units). Fuel cells have the promise to achieve all of these goals. However, to be truly effective, these advanced systems should integrate seamlessly with the current supplies of energy storage (batteries) and energy sources (logistics fuel). The largest fuel cell development hurdle to date has been the ability to handle sulfur concentrations present in logistics fuel. Secondly, the reformer must be capable of several thousands of hours of operation utilizing logistics fuels without loss of performance due to sulfur or carbon deposition. Advancements in several key technologies have the potential to allow development of a logistics fueled solid oxide fuel cell with similar size, weight, and power
Abstract On the Mobile Detection Assessment Response System (MDARS) production program, General Dynamics Robotics Systems (GDRS) and International Logistics Systems (ILS), are working with the US Army’s Product Manager – Force Protection Systems (PM-FPS) to reduce system costs throughout the production lifecycle. Under this process, GDRS works through an Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) process to improve the reliability and maintainability of subsystem designs with the goal of making the entire system more producible at a lower cost. In addition, GDRS recommends substitutions of Government requirements that are cost drivers with those that reduce cost impact but do not result in reduced capability for the end user. This paper describes the production lifecycle process for the MDARS system and recommends future considerations for fielding of complex autonomous robotic systems
ABSTRACT A distinctive feature of unmanned and conventional terrain vehicles with four or more driving wheels consists of the fact that energy/fuel efficiency and mobility depend markedly not only on the total power applied to all the driving wheels, but also on the distribution of the total power among the wheels. As shown, under given terrain conditions, the same vehicle with a constant total power at all the driving wheels, but with different power distributions among the driving wheels, will demonstrate different fuel consumption, mobility and traction; the vehicle will accelerate differently and turn at different turn radii. This paper explains the nature of mechanical wheel power losses which depend on the power distribution among all the driving wheels and provides mathematical models for evaluating vehicle fuel economy and mobility. The paper also describes in detail analytical technology and computational results of the optimization of wheel power distributions among the
ABSTRACT Design for structural topology optimization is a method of distributing material within a design domain of prescribed dimensions. This domain is discretized into a large number of elements in which the optimization algorithm removes, adds, or maintains the amount of material. The resulting structure maximizes a prescribed mechanical performance while satisfying functional and geometric constraints. Among different topology optimization algorithms, the hybrid cellular automaton (HCA) method has proven to be efficient and robust in problems involving large, plastic deformations. The HCA method has been used to design energy absorbing structures subject to crash impact. The goal of this investigation is to extend the use of the HCA algorithm to the design of an advanced composite armor (ACA) system subject to a blast load. The ACA model utilized consists of two phases: ceramic and metallic. In this work, the proposed algorithm drives the optimal distribution of a metallic phase
ABSTRACT In monolithic protection materials, a threat increase correlates to an increased material thickness. This is evident in V50 armor material specifications, such as Rolled Homogeneous Armor (RHA) MIL-DTL-12560K. This relationship translates to combat system level weight; the higher the performance, the higher the material weight, the higher the system weight. For ground combat systems, the total platform weight indicates relative protection. Hence, the M1 Abrams weight and protection level is greater than the Bradley Family of Vehicles, and the Bradley weight and protection level is greater than the M113. The weight procurement dollarization impacts are known during developmental efforts, but weight relationships also impact training and sustainment costs. Thus armor based weight changes have at least three cost relationships: procurement, training, and sustainment. These cost relationships are useful to understand in the context of the Army’s annual budget cycle. Citation: RA
ABSTRACT The Department of Defense is a major consumer of petroleum products – over 700 million gallons per day. While the majority of fuel consumed is for aircraft, in terms of logistics and exposure of personnel to hazardous conditions, the amount of fuel consumed in ground vehicles is considerable, with the cost (in-theatre, delivered) ranging from $100 to $600/gallon. This paper addresses the impact that parasitic friction mechanisms (boundary lubrication and lubricant viscosity) have on engine friction and overall vehicle efficiency. A series of mechanistic models of friction losses in key engine components was applied to investigate the impact of low-friction technologies on the fuel consumption of heavy-duty, on-road vehicles. The results indicate that fuel savings in the range of 3 to 5% are feasible by reducing boundary friction and utilizing low-viscosity engine lubricants. The paper will discuss the implications of the studies (as performed for commercial heavy-duty trucks
ABSTRACT This GVSETS paper outlines the strategy for integrating Digital Engineering (DE) practices into the Detroit Arsenal (DTA) acquisition, engineering, and sustainment communities. A DTA DE Community of Practice (CoP) is being led by Program Executive Office (PEO) Ground Combat Systems (GCS), PEO Combat Support & Combat Service Support (CS&CSS), Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Ground Vehicles Systems Center (GVSC), and Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM). In addition, Program Management Offices (PMOs) will document their DE implementation plans as part of all planning documents per Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics & Technology (ASA[ALT]) guidance [1]. In this paper, each of the DTA organizations will address the following: Ongoing DE Related Efforts; Upcoming / Planned Efforts / Opportunities; Lessons Learned; and Challenges / Issues / Help Needed. Additionally, each DTA organization explains its current and future states along
ABSTRACT Situations exist that require the ability to preposition a basic level of energy infrastructure. Exploring and developing the arctic’s oil potential, providing power to areas damaged by natural or man-made disasters, and deploying forward operating bases are some examples. This project will develop and create a proof-of-concept electric power prepositioning system using small autonomous swarm robots each containing a power electronic building block. Given a high-level power delivery requirement, the robots will self-organize and physically link with each other to connect power sources to storage and end loads. Each robot mobile agent will need to determine both its positioning and energy conversion strategy that will deliver energy generated at one voltage and frequency to an end load requiring a different voltage and frequency. Although small-scale robots will be used to develop the negotiation strategies, scalability to existing, large-scale robotic vehicles will be
This set of criteria is intended for use by accredited Certification Bodies (CBs) to establish compliance and grant certification to AS6081A. It may also be used by others to assess compliance to AS6081A requirements
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