Original Date: 05/23/1994
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Keyport's Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Storage Program (DMSMS) is a leader in the electronic component life cycle support concept. At present the government only has 3% of the market share of electronic components which presents a problem in an environment where many government systems exceed the technology used in their design, and many systems contain obsolete components before they become operational.

Keyport has taken a leadership role in providing solutions to the issues of obsolescence. Its DMSMS consists of three parts – proactive elements, reactive elements, and life cycle monitoring. The proactive element contains three main processes – obsolescence smart solution, parts selection screening for obsolescence during system design, and electronic component technology analysis. The second part of the program – the reactive element – consists of component substitution, extended buys, redesign, component emulation, and reclamation. The last part of the program, life-cycle monitoring, consists of two processes, asset management (extended buys assets and reclamation assets), and monitoring of alerts for system impact.

The DMSMS at Keyport identifies and provides alternative parts for potential material obsolescence problems before they impact system production or life cycle support. The Navy Electronic Component Application Database system provides historical information on parts alerts and top-down breakdown structure of the component, as well as, suggested substitute parts, and establishes a system technology life-cycle projection.

The DMSMS has played a significant role in identifying obsolete parts before the system goes into production. For example, Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Storage screened a proposed system design and identified approximately 15% of the parts on the contractors parts lists that would have resulted in availability problems within three to five years. In another case, Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Storage was used to rapidly complete eight extended buys, with an average dollar value of $50K for each item that would only be available for a short period of time. The Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Storage team successfully avoided unplanned redesign solutions in all but one out of 386 cases over the last five years. Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Storage has achieved a cost avoidance history over the past 4.5 years of approximately $106 million dollars.

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