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IoT for Military Asset Management (Part II): Tapestry’s Sensor Integration Solution, ESI, Changes the Game for Defense Supply Chains

January 17, 2018

Decades ago, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) played a critical role in laying the foundation for the Internet of Things (IoT) with sensors, extensive computer networks and communications technologies. Today, as the IoT transforms the world around us – from smart homes to smart factories – leveraging the IoT for the defense supply chain seems like the logical next step in the military’s digital transformation. But it’s not that simple.

ESI

Over the years, the U.S. military has focused its IoT-related deployments on combat operations, primarily network-centric warfare – the centerpiece of military transformation that relies on sensors, platforms and networks for battlefield situational awareness. The DoD also continues to drive innovation with machine-to-machine communications and artificial intelligence.

In the area of asset management, the military uses radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to track shipments and manage inventories, but RFID sensors are just part of the IoT equation.

 The IoT Elephant in the Room: CONNECTIVITY

The IoT has become a ubiquitous term with all the hype surrounding sensors and smart devices in the private sector. The Internet of Things actually involves much more than a network of sensors and smart devices collecting data. The ultimate challenge is connecting these technologies as part of an intelligent network, and transforming “Big Data” into meaningful information. Connectivity, therefore, is key to a true IoT infrastructure.

IoT systems are more than just sensors collecting massive amounts of data. To be a true IoT system, the data must undergo analysis and be used to effect some type of physical or virtual response,” as noted in the CSIS report, Leveraging the Internet of Things for a More Efficient and Effective Military.

A major challenge is that information is often collected from sensors that are not designed to communicate with one another, and this poses a major problem in managing supply chain assets.  Rather than extracting data from each sensor type, a true IoT platform fuses the data from multiple sensors in real time, providing timely, actionable information to decision makers.

In the commercial sector, the IoT is transforming everything from manufacturing and supply chains to transportation systems and maintenance management systems. It is significantly improving productivity, efficiency and profitability. However, the military has not kept pace with commercial IoT deployments for several reasons, including security concerns, shrinking budgets and interoperability challenges.

While the military has been a driver in connected and machine-to-machine communications such as radio frequency identification, more commonly known as RFID, it has been slow to adopt true IoT applications that knit these communications into interoperable, automated cycles. Communications remain within their given channels, not easily shared or aggregated,” according to the Deloitte article, Continuing the march: The past, present, and future of the IoT in the military.

With this in mind, broader deployment of IoT technology across the military “requires investment in increased connectivity, digital analytics and improved interoperability,” noted to CSIS authors Denise E. Zheng and William A. Carter.

ESI: Solving the Interoperability Challenge

Tapestry Solutions provides the gateway to the IoT with its Enterprise Sensor Integration (ESI) technology. ESI effectively bridges disparate sensors together via a single interface, solving challenges related to interoperability. It also delivers automation, real-time alerts, mapping applications and analytics – the full offerings of the Internet of Things. This ensures total asset visibility of equipment, tools, cargo and processes anywhere and at any time.

In fact, Boeing – the world’s largest aerospace company – has already reaped the rewards of ESI.  At Boeing, ESI has integrated its asset tracking and supply chain management systems on a common platform across 50 assembly plants. This unity of information, powered by sensor integration, saved Boeing more than $100 million in the first year alone, and it continues to generate huge savings each year.

The ESI platform integrates sensors ranging from RFID position-information tags, passive and active GPS-enabled WiFi tags to embedded hardware and complex servers. ESI also seamlessly integrates customers’ legacy and next generation systems. As a “sensor agnostic” solution, ESI can communicate with many different hardware and software vendors’ IoT solutions.  The platform can be implemented across a global enterprise, either in the cloud or on dedicated servers.

With sensor fusion as a core capability, Tapestry Solutions has been delivering enterprise-level solutions to commercial and military customers for decades.  Let’s take a closer look at Tapestry’s asset management solutions of the past and how these technologies eventually led to the development of solutions like ESI.

BCS3: A New Age in Information Sharing

Dating back to the U.S.-Iraq War, Tapestry Solutions developed the Army’s Battle Command Sustainment Support System (BCS3) in response to mounting pressure for better asset tracking. First fielded in 2004, BCS3 represented the start of a new age in sustainment information sharing. BCS3 was among the first battle command systems for logistics that helped commanders filter critical logistics information.

Still in limited use today, BCS3 provided commanders with a joint logistics common operating picture. It tied together information from numerous, disparate Army logistics systems, in-transit visibility systems, and other fragmented data sources. This enabled operators to view the supply stockage levels in warehouses and track the movement of supplies as they traveled through the distribution systems via air, land and sea.

Among the subsystems feeding into BCS3 were RFID tags and fixed-site interrogators. BCS3 processed RFID tag data and graphically depicted the data on a map or report (shown above).

The RFID tags work like “wireless bar codes” that record, track, and manage the supplies and equipment of a modern networked military, according to the article, “RFID Technology: Keeping Track of DoD’s Stuff.”    There are many benefits to RFID, including improved asset tracking, inventory management and automation. However, the DoD had faced challenges of achieving widespread RFID implementation, mainly because it was unable to demonstrate the return on investment.

Improving the Effectiveness of RFID – and Multiple Sensor Technologies

Fast forward to today. As the costs of using RFID technology decreased phenomenally, RFID has been deployed across military supplies and assets, including aircraft, tanks, weapons and ammunition, soldiers and equipment.

It is estimated that the military has over 3 million active RFID tags in circulation, including over 3,000 tag-reader devices in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Pakistan, according to ToolHound, a developer of web-based tool management software.  RFID is often used with barcodes to record, track and manage military equipment and supplies.

The information collected by RFID tags is significant, but its value is limited if the data remains siloed, or isolated from other data sources. Its true potential can only be realized when connected to other sensors and asset management systems via an Internet of Things platform, like Tapestry’s ESI.

By fusing data from multiple sensor technologies from multiple vendors, ESI gives decision-makers a complete picture of their asset movements and inventory.  For instance, if an enemy mobilized against the U.S., military officers can immediately identify what is happening, determine which assets are nearby, mobilize those assets and ensure they have enough equipment, supplies, and soldiers to overcome the opposition.

Despite the challenges of adopting IoT for military applications, ESI can help defense organizations leverage this interconnected architecture to increase efficiency, reduce costs and enhance situational awareness across the full spectrum of defense logistics management.

It’s all about information-sharing – and achieving information superiority in the battlespace – because military commanders have always lived and died by information.

he appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information
does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

Contact:

Janet Dayton
Tapestry Solutions Inc.
tapestrymarketing@boeing.com

Watch ESI Commercial to Learn More

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Filed Under: Blog Posts, Uncategorized Tagged With: Asset Management, Enterprise Sensor Integration, ESI, Internet of Things, IoT, IoT for Defense, RFID

IoT for Military Asset Management (Part I): A Deep Dive into Problems of the Past and how Tapestry’s Sensor Integration Platform, ESI, Can Help

December 19, 2017

The Internet of Things (IoT) permeates everyday life around the globe. From smart TVs to appliances, the IoT gives organizations an opportunity to learn more about consumers’ spending habits, behaviors and more.

Adoption of IoT devices is particularly beneficial to manufacturing and supply chain operations that manage a large number of assets and complex distribution processes. The IoT promises to boost productivity, productivity and profitability by improving decision-making and redefining how people and machines interact with each other.

However, the IoT goes beyond the private sector; it has wide-ranging implications and benefits for military logistics and supply chain management. Connected devices in the military promise to revolutionize modern warfare by leveraging automation, Big Data and analytics. This will provide greater lethality and survivability for our warfighters, while reducing cost and increasing efficiency.

“IoT devices can gather more data, facilitate more complex analysis and faster reactions, and reduce human error, delivering more precise and efficient military capabilities, according to a CSIS report, “Leveraging the Internet for a More Efficient and Effective Military.”

 Challenges in Adopting IoT for Military Applications

The DoD continues to drive innovation in advanced sensors and control systems, “but it is falling behind in deployment of IoT technologies that have the potential to deliver new capabilities and cost savings,” according to CSIS authors Denise E. Zheng and William A. Carter.

Like commercial operations, the DoD continues to struggle with interoperability. While the military has deployed a wide range of IoT-related technologies, many are developed in segregated “stovepipes” which makes it difficult to communicate across other systems.

The DoD has also connected millions of sensors through extensive network infrastructures, but few leverage the full capabilities of the IoT – namely connected sensors, automation and digital analytics.

Enterprise Sensor Integration: The Gateway to the IoT

Tapestry Solutions, a leader in information management software and services, has addressed these challenges with its Enterprise Sensor Integration (ESI) solution. ESI is a revolutionary integration platform that provides a centralized hub for any sensor, regardless of hardware type or brands.

The technology automates workflow processes and integrates digital analytics, enabling commanders and logisticians to easily digest massive amounts of data to facilitate relevant, instant decision-making. ESI significantly optimizes asset tracking, inventory management, warehouse and fulfillment operations, and workflow management.

To truly understand why ESI is key to leveraging the IoT in defense supply chains of today, however, let’s take a look at defense supply chains of the past.

A Flashback to the Gulf Wars

For decades, the U.S. military has faced a widespread problem: a lack of visibility into supply and demand. When a soldier needed something, uncertainty surrounded the order.

Photo: David Giles / Getty Images

Questions undoubtedly arose: Where’s my stuff? When will it get here? How long will it be before another shipment arrives? How much do I have right now?

During Operation Storm, for instance, these questions led to frequent instances of over-ordering supplies – or “just-in-case” stockage – a standard practice in all ranks in the military.  However, this practice of hoarding backfired. The units that depended on just-in-case stockage experienced extended wait times until they receive needed parts.

During Desert Storm, the just-in-case logistics system was so severely hindered by misprioritized shipments that high-priority items, such as food, ammunition, and fuel, were not delivered to participating units in a timely manner. To avert the possibility that units might run out of critical supplies, a ‘work-around’ just-in-time distribution system called Desert Express was developed,” according to Army Logistician.

After the war ended, assets ranging from package-level supplies to artillery and armored vehicles were left in the field or warehouses for use by allied forces in Iraq, aid workers and contractors.

As military conflict returned to the region in the second Gulf War, U.S. soldiers were taking advantage and using the resources left behind from the First Gulf War. Unfortunately, much of the weapons and equipment left behind had grown old with advances in battlefield technology. The use of these left-behind assets led to even more significant confusion as the military realized millions of dollars were lost.

Poor Accountability = Losses and Risk

The problem continued during the second Gulf War with the massive withdraw of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011. Rather than ship everything home, the U.S. handed over military bases and millions of pieces of equipment – worth billions to the Iraqi government, according to the Huffington Post.

In September 2011, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report, GAO-11-774  noting that after one of the largest base transitions to date, “officials said they were surprised at the amount of unaccounted-for equipment that was left over at the end of the transition process.”

In one year alone, over 2.4 million pieces of equipment worth a total of $250 million had been given away to the Iraqi government, including tanks and trucks to office furniture and latrines.  Unfortunately, many items were unaccounted for.

Some assets could have simply piled up in Iraq since combat operations began in 2003 and were not properly logged, according to the report. The GAO warned that “units sometimes turn in such equipment without paperwork and have even removed identifying markings such as serial numbers to avoid retribution.”

Better tracking of assets was the end-all solution presented in the GAO report, but it had a more profound reason than just cost-savings. It could prevent equipment, weapons and uniforms from falling into the enemies’ hands.

The problem continued in 2013 with missing assets in Afghanistan. The DoD Inspector General published a summary of an audit report revealing that the U.S. military “did not report in a timely manner 15,600 pieces of missing equipment valued at approximately $419.5 million,” according to ABC Denver. In the report, Army officials were criticized for poor accounting and oversight.

Technology Used for Tracking Continued to Lag, Reducing Visibility

Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags were available at this point and widely used in the private sector, such as retail outlets like Walmart. RFID also had promising applications for military asset tracking and supply chain visibility, but investing in them was counterproductive.

The costs of tracking package-level items with active RFID (aRFID) or passive RFID (pRFID) was significant; thus, the military relied mostly on barcoding.

Barcodes were placed on all assets and supplies, ranging from aircrafts to item-level packages. While effective at tracking items, this process lacked real-time applicability. Information scanned was only as good as its last time of scanning.

Barcodes were also slow and cumbersome. The technology required direct line of sight and lacked accuracy, according to Mojix.  The lack of asset visibility, in turn, resulted in the continued practice of over-ordering and unaccounted-for assets.

Automation: The Key to Total Asset Visibility, Improved Productivity and Cost-Savings

The problem was compounded because data collection was dependent on manual entry. The lack of automation – along with a fragmented information technology (IT) structure and limited processing of data – contributed to further inaccuracies in data collection, storage, retrieval and analysis.

When the U.S. turned over forward-operating bases to local forces in the Middle East, for example, the military could not determine the actual value or location of all assets and equipment left behind. Due to manual data entry, information and accountability got lost amid the paperwork.

The natural solution to this problem is automation; however, automation depends on solid IT structure. The best-laid plans for system data collection and automation will fall short if a network cannot realistically communicate with individual sensors and interfaces. All components of an IT network must function as one to provide a clear, crisp image of overall supply chain asset location, movements and planned deployments or shipments.

Moving from manual entry and application to automation leads to better analyses and review of data to enhance supply chain accountability and visibility. Furthermore, leveraging Big Data and analytics through an IoT-based platform like Tapestry’s ESI solution, can help commanders achieve a 360-degree view of all military assets, regardless of time or location.

On the battlefield, this translates into fewer instances of lost, unaccounted-for equipment and lowers the risk of expensive, if not dangerous, military equipment falling into the wrong hands.

What’s Next?

Military logistics networks face an uphill battle when using outdated, manual processes to track and manage supply chain assets. Rather than leaving many supplies, assets and resources in potentially hostile territories upon withdrawal from times of war, military forces need a way to gain accurate, real-time visibility and accountability into their logistics’ networks.

ESI addresses these challenges with its sensor-agnostic IoT platform that enables various sensor technologies and networks to talk with one another. But how exactly does implementing IoT technologies via ESI lead to better asset tracking for defense organizations? How does integration of IoT technologies prevent the recurrence of the disastrous state of DoD logistics that arose during the Gulf Wars?

Stay tuned. We answer those questions in the next blog of this two-part series.

The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information
does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

Contact:

Janet Dayton
Tapestry Solutions Inc.
tapestrymarketing@boeing.com

See ESI Commercial to Learn More

Filed Under: Blog Posts, Uncategorized Tagged With: Asset Management, ESI, Internet of Things, IoT, Military Distribution, Supply Chain

Tapestry Solutions Launches IoT Sensor Integration Solution; ESI Leverages Enterprise Technology Deployed at Boeing

October 25, 2016

SAN DIEGO, November 16, 2016 – Tapestry Solutions, Inc., a non-fully integrated subsidiary of Boeing [NSYE: BA], has launched its Enterprise Sensor Integration (ESI) software platform that will transform supply chain operations and help businesses tap the power of the Internet of Things (IoT). Tapestry’s ESI middleware solution seamlessly connects people, processes and data on factory floors, supply chains, and across the enterprise. By providing a standard infrastructure for data and analytics, ESI gives decision-makers a complete picture of their inventory and asset movements during the production process.

Wing Sets in the 747 Factory in Everett
(Photo: Jeff McNeil/Wikimedia Commons)

“ESI is a game-changer in the industry. It will modernize supply chain and manufacturing operations, and in the process, help businesses grow their bottom line,” said Robin Wright, President & CEO of Tapestry Solutions, Inc.

ESI is based on Tapestry’s field-proven technology recently deployed at 50 sites throughout The Boeing Company – the world’s largest aerospace company. At Boeing, the custom technology is known as the Automated Identification Technology – Information Management System, or AIT-IMS. In its first year alone, AIT-IMS saved Boeing approximately $100 million through decreased assembly time, automated asset receipt/payment, enhanced inventory management and improved quality and safety.

The software harnesses the power of Big Data, boosting manufacturing efficiency, productivity and profitability. It serves as the foundation for the IoT, where internet-enabled devices are connected, intelligent and interactive.

“ESI not only will give businesses a competitive advantage, it will also help accelerate industry innovation around the globe. We are proud to be Automotive industry manufacture line with different metal partspart of this IoT sensor revolution,” added Jens Pohl, Vice President of Engineering, Tapestry Solutions.

Tapestry’s commercially available ESI solution features expanded capabilities, including a cloud-based platform and integration with temperature sensors, thermostats, pressure sensors and humidity sensors.

Through data fusion, ESI integrates a myriad of sensor technologies that track, monitor and control assets and workflow processes on a common platform. It synthesizes data from sensors, software and electronics – everything from bar codes, active and passive RFID, Wi-Fi and GPS tags to scanners and ultra-wideband wireless systems can securely and seamlessly interact with one another.

pharmaceutical factory equipment mixing tank on production line in pharmacy industry manufacture factory

ESI also unlocks the massive opportunity of the future IoT, where everything is smart and interconnected – from smart cities and homes to smart factories. From a manufacturing perspective, the sensor management system is not limited to tracking assets and enhancing supply chain visibility, however. It can also be linked to a building’s infrastructure and equipment, such as managing and controlling heating, lighting and door security systems as well as machine sensors.

The enterprise-class platform has interconnected nearly every aspect of Boeing’s asset management and supply chain. As a result of its successful implementation, AIT-IMS will serve as the platform for Boeing’s IoT integration efforts. (See AIT-IMS Case Study)

Tapestry Solutions, Inc. is a global provider of information management software and services for defense, government and commercial markets. Backed by our parent company, The Boeing Company, we help solve logistics challenges for the world’s largest and most complex supply chains. We also provide mission planning, training and simulation support to maximize readiness for our warfighters. Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Tapestry supports customers from more than 50 locations around the world, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Afghanistan, Kuwait, the UK, South Korea, Australia and Germany.

Media Contact:
Janet Dayton
tapestrymarketing@boeing.com

Filed Under: Press Releases, Recent News Tagged With: AIT, AIT-IMS, Asset Management, Enterprise Sensor Integration, ESI, Internet of Things, IoT, manufacturing, RFID, Supply Chain

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