Integrated Product Support (IPS) Element - Maintenance Planning and Management

As captured in Appendix A of the Product Support Manager (PSM) Guidebook, and amplified in the IPS Element Guidebook, the objective of Maintenance Planning and Management is to identify, plan, resource, and implement maintenance concepts and requirements to ensure the best possible equipment/capability is available when the Warfighter needs it at the lowest possible Total Ownership Cost (TOC). Maintenance Planning and Management includes the detailed development process that defines the repair and upkeep tasks, schedule, and resources required to care for and sustain a weapons system with the focus being to define the actions and support necessary to attain the system’s Operational Availability (Ao) objective. It is included as a crucial and evolving portion of the Product Support Strategy (PSS) and Life Cycle Sustainment Plan (LCSP), starting as early as the Technology Development Phase in the system’s acquisition process.

Maintenance Planning and Management involves developing, implementing and managing the maintenance requirements, concept, and, as system design details become known, includes detailed maintenance processes and procedures for the appropriate level of system maintenance support. This includes specifics such as who performs the required maintenance tasks and where tasks will be accomplished, as well as all the resources and funding needed to develop and implement maintenance activities.

Key Maintenance Planning and Management IPS Element activities address:

• Maintenance concept development
• Core capability analysis
• Title 10 50/50 reporting
• Public-Private Partnerships (PPP)
• Maintenance execution
• Level of Repair Analysis (LORA) – for both hardware and software
• Failure Modes Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA)
• Operational Tempo (OPTEMPO) variance management
• Routine versus battle-damage repair management
• Built-in and manual testability management
• Inter-service, organic, and contractor mix of repair responsibilities
• Condition Based Maintenance Plus (CBM+); Diagnostics, Prognostics & Health Management (PHM)
• Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM)
• Depot workload allocation, planning, activation and execution

Maintenance Planning and Management should be initiated as soon as design alternatives are defined to influence the design for supportability; and continue throughout the life cycle whenever logistics-related changes occur. Once the concepts and plans are developed, Maintenance Planning and Management efforts include: 

1. Actions taken to retain materiel in a serviceable condition or to restore it to serviceability. It includes inspection, testing, servicing, and classification as to serviceability, repair, rebuilding, and reclamation.
2. All supply and repair actions taken to keep a force in condition to carry out its mission.
3. The routine recurring actions required to keep a facility (plant, building, structure, ground facility, utility system, or other real property) in such condition that it may be continuously used at its original or designed capacity and efficiency for its intended purpose.

Corrective and Preventive Maintenance

There are two very broad concepts in the type of maintenance actions, which work in tandem to balance operational readiness required by the Warfighter and economical operation required by DoD. These concepts are Corrective and Preventive maintenance and are discussed below in more detail.

Corrective Maintenance - The concept of corrective maintenance is to "fly it 'til it breaks". This can be acceptable as long as the failure does not result in an unacceptable loss of equipment and/or human pain and suffering or loss of life. The primary benefit of corrective maintenance is the reduction of support costs since non-critical systems aren't needlessly monitored, while the downside is the unknown timing of a failure and the impact to system availability, mission completion and human impact. Those working on the maintenance concept - who should represent both the Engineering and Logistics community - must understand the impact corrective maintenance will have on mission performance and all other applicable IPS Elements (e.g., Supply Support, Manpower and Personnel, Training and Training Support etc.). When the failure of a particular component has very little impact on safety or mission performance, it may be the best, most cost-effective solution.

Preventive Maintenance - Is the proactive care and servicing of equipment and facilities to keep them in satisfactory operating condition and includes regularly scheduled inspections and equipment problem/failure detection, followed by maintenance actions before an incident onset or before the development of major system or equipment defects. The concept of preventive maintenance is to "fix it before it breaks", by attempting to prevent critical failures by various diagnostic modes. In addition to inspections, failure rate projections could be based on operating hours, calendar days, landings, takeoffs, etc. CBM+ is a technological approach that has been developed to maximize the benefits of preventive maintenance by basing it on informed data. It is dependent on a solid performance baseline and detailed performance insight collected from the specific system configuration over time - often through advanced digital measurement systems. CBM+ is often more expensive during development because of the requirement to install information collection devices for delivering detailed system performance information (or procuring systems and equipment with this inherent capability), but it often improves system readiness and may prove more cost effective in the long-term by eliminating the need for procuring additional systems, equipment or repair parts to accommodate anticipated losses/attrition.

Without the enhancement of CBM+, RCM or other PHM systems, traditional preventive maintenance drove the replacement of components based on generic, worst-case operational profiles. Very few systems are actually used in a "worst-case" environment for their full life cycle, but in the absence of solid data upon which to make predictions, the sustainment community would often err on the side of safety. While understandable, this drove up sustainment costs by keeping an insurance-based parts inventory to support the removal and/or replacement of many components that weren't really broken. Initiatives such as CBM+, RCM, and PHM allow the reduction of an inflated support infrastructure but require an up-front investment in solid diagnostic capabilities in order to achieve realistic and reasonable future savings.

Summary - The Maintenance Planning and Management process is driven by the system design, the concept of operation and a detailed understanding of how the system breaks down via insight collected though a FMECA, LORA and follow-on MTA. These detailed analyses form the foundation for developing a solid and executable maintenance plan and LCSP that will deliver required availability goals within cost targets. Therefore, the outputs of the Maintenance Planning and Management process - e.g., targeted maintenance plans and associated task requirements - are the lynchpins to a solid and supportable PSS.