Original Date: 08/10/1998
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

As a result of major cost and scheduling issues (e.g., late delivery on central charging panels) which almost hindered the building of CVN-72, the Engineering Directorate mandated that a team review the problem. The team identified the lack of an automated, computerized, central processing system for job tracking as the primary reason for delays. This shortcoming contributed to missed delivery dates, mishandled job priorities, difficulty in financial status tracking, and inaccurate capacity surveys. The team also conducted a study to locate an off-the-shelf system which could support a diversity of products and priorities. They found a system architecture and application being used by the Air Force in a MANTECH initiative, which could be assumed at no cost to Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC), Lakehurst. After customizing it to the base’s needs, the Prototyping and Manufacturing Department (PMD) implemented the Manufacturing Planning Control System (MPCS) in 1991.

The MPCS is an Oracle-based software tool which runs on an Alpha 2100 server. The PMD uses this system to initiate, track, and verify any specific job from customer inquiry to delivery. The MPCS handles all aspects of manufacturing resource planning such as quoting and estimating; order processing; bill of materials; process planning; work release; production control; quality control; and shop floor data. The MPCS also interfaces directly with the Standard Labor Data Collection and Distributed Application System; NAWC, Lakehurst’s Time and Attendance System; and several other software systems required for material acquisition, warehousing, and staging.

With its success, the MPCS is now serving more than 150 users including project managers, branch heads, production controllers, shop supervisors, schedulers, and administrators. Benefits include project/part visibility, single data point entry, fully integrated system, real-time status, capacity forecasting, and the ability to support all manufacturing elements. The system is providing important information to a variety of activities, ensuring the successful support of the Fleet.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.