Chapter 10: Applications

Title: Product Lifecycle Management for the US Army Weapon Systems Acquisition

Author(s): Raj G. Iyer, Thomas Gulledge

Address: Tank Automotive R&D Engineering Center (TARDEC) United States Army Research Development and Engineering Command 6501 E. 11 Mile Road, Warren, Michigan 48397 USA | Enterprise Engineering Laboratory George Mason University SPP, PAC, MS 2E4, Fairfax, Virginia 22030-4444 USA

Reference: International Conference on Product Lifecycle Management 2005 pp. 553 - 564

Abstract/Summary: The business reasons for adopting Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) within an enterprise have been well documented for private industry such as automobile, aerospace and consumer products. However, few realise that the United States Army holds one of the largest volumes of product data for its fleet of combat vehicles. This paper discusses the challenges encountered in managing such large volumes of product data that is geographically distributed between government agencies and private industry contractors. The paper will also discuss issues that are unique to the Army and not generally encountered in private industry. Finally, the paper will outline the Army's PLM strategy and architectures for data management throughout the lifecycle.

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