Imagine…improving the accuracy of your work and reducing the time it takes to complete by as much as 80%.

Sound like a fairy tale? It’s an exciting reality for the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier community, thanks to a tool developed by AMSEC in conjunction with the Commanders, Naval Air Forces, U.S. Atlantic Fleet and U.S. Pacific Fleet (COMNAVAIRLANT and COMNAVAIRPAC), now under the cognizance of Commander, Naval Air Forces (CNAF).

On a typical day, in a standard aircraft carrier environment, a single watchstander responds to casualty calls from more than 100 ship compartments and scores of individual ship systems. But, very few individuals, if any, have the knowledge or experience to field calls on that number of different systems. Before casualty restoration and repair efforts can begin, watchstanders must locate system-specific, maintenance-related information. With no centralized or automated means of storing or locating the information, this is typically a difficult and time-consuming task.

A Better Way
Today, the Total Ship Information Management System (TSIMS) is simplifying carrier equipment maintenance and restoration processes, thanks to AMSEC’s TSIMS team. In fact, never before have ship’s personnel had such an in-depth and responsive system to assist them in ensuring equipment casualties are quickly identified, managed, and resolved to restore missioncritical capabilities. The system’s searchable, graphical interface builds on previous manual methods to bring disparate onboard maintenance resources such as manuals, parts lists, and management plans together in one central location. With access to this data right at their fingertips, ship’s force personnel can make critical decisions on affected systems, regardless of the casualty reported or the extent of their own product knowledge. And they can do it in less time than ever before! One recent survey of TSIMS users onboard Navy carriers indicated the system actually cut response times by an average of 80%.

The AMSEC TSIMS group, a joint effort of employees of the Pacific Northwest (PNW), Chesapeake, and Philadelphia Divisions, supports the TSIMS In-Service Engineering Agent (ISEA) Program Manager for the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division – Ship System Engineering Station (NSWCCD-SSES).

“We’ve all seen examples of how inaccurate information can be much worse than no information at all,” Fred Makowski, AMSEC’s PNW Maintenance Information Division Manager, said. “For this very reason, TSIMS works to provide the warfighter with the most accurate information possible to support critical decision-making…. And the fact that TSIMS has supported the fleet since 1991 without a single negative incident – as well as its recent inclusion in the Navy’s Distance Support initiatives – is a testament not only to the team’s technical expertise, impeccable software development, and quality assurance practices, but also to the system’s ability to continue supporting the U.S. fleet well into the future.”

How TSIMS Works
A high-tech alternative to manual information storage and retrieval methods, TSIMS is the centerpiece application program in a suite of maintenance-related software systems collectively known as the Maintainer’s Integrated Software Toolkit (MIST). MIST, which appears on the desktop as a customizable toolbar, organizes the TSIMS sub-applications and serves as a gateway for login access to its virtual “technical knowledge environment.”

Making full use of Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft SQL Server, and a graphical user interface (GUI), TSIMS seamlessly integrates more than 5,000 digitized space and system drawings, interactive electronic technical manual (IETM) procedures, and other maintenance-related documents with logistics support information libraries to form a ship information resource unlike any other. The drawings, which cover everything from space layouts and equipment elevations, to power distributions and interconnection wiring, to supply routes and antenna distributions, are developed, updated, and maintained through the collaborative efforts of the Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion, and Repair (SUPSHIP) Newport News, individual shipyards, a network of support contractors, and even the maintainers via a password-protected data update capability.

Using TSIMS, locating information is as simple as entering technical data about the equipment, system, or space (e.g., space number, equipment nomenclature, etc.); selecting a search filter (i.e., “beginning with,” “ending with,” or “containing”); and clicking the “search” button. Once displayed, search results can be sorted by functional description, nomenclature, space number, or space description. One or more drawings can then be selected from the list (049313) for display, with the search item centered and highlighted for easy reference. In addition to its search capability, TSIMS offers shipboard watch officers a near-realtime operational status summary of the ship’s main systems, organized by functional system groups (i.e., radar, navigation, propulsion, etc.), with links to other TSIMS functions.

Team AMSEC
Since the program’s inception in 1987, AMSEC has supported the TSIMS project, literally, from the ground up. In the late 1990s, as system module and initial dataset development got underway, a team of about 75 AMSEC employees provided everything from logistics and program support, to programming and data collection. TSIMS-related programs have since become a part of the “gold disk,” a standard set of software applications used on all Navy aircraft carriers. Today, a group of 26 AMSEC employees continues to provide system enhancements, as well as changes supporting the migration of customer operating system platforms. They also help maintain datasets according to current aircraft carrier combat system configurations.

AMSEC’s well-rounded TSIMS team is led by the collaborative efforts of TSIMS Program Manager, Eric Schneider, of the Philadelphia Division, along with his government counterpart; Maintenance Information Division Manager, Fred Makowski, of the PNW Maintenance Information Division; and Fleet Services Division Manager, Dennis Wilkelis, of the Chesapeake Division. Together, the talented TSIMS team boasts more than 200 years of experience in support of this powerful program!

Along with the fleet support divisions, AMSEC’s Philadelphia Division on-site personnel also help ensure information assurance (IA) considerations are addressed and conduct quality assurance (QA) reviews of final products prior to the release of the system to the fleet. In short, AMSEC’s TSIMS team and TSIMS-related program efforts are fully integrated at customer sites to ensure all work is coordinated for maximum efficiency and timely delivery of the product to the fleet.

Endless Possibilities
TSIMS, now installed and fully operational on 12 U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, continues to gain recognition and roll out to additional ships. AMSEC and NSWCCD have begun integrating the system into the Navy’s Distance Support architecture initiatives by loading TSIMS software onto the Navy’s Integrated Application Product Suite. This application suite is currently installed on 68 ships and is scheduled for installation on all surface ships by Fiscal Year 2011. The Distance Support architecture’s enterprise environment simplifies the integration process by eliminating the need for maintenance personnel to travel from ship to ship to manually install TSIMS software; it also saves time and money – an estimated $10,000 per ship maintenance cycle – in the process.

Because TSIMS programs are identical across the board and easily adapted to any ship environment, AMSEC and NSWCCD are exploring implementing TSIMS on large-deck amphibious ships as well. While TSIMS does not yet offer amphibious ships the ready-made datasets currently available to aircraft carriers, plans are in motion for fiscal year 2007 to create the unique datasets needed and to develop generic hull/flight datasets.

TSIMS is also being examined for use in aiding the work of the Navy’s Distance Support Operation Centers (DSOCs). DSOCs operate much like aircraft carrier watchstanders, yet on a much larger scale. On any given day, they answer casualty calls from hundreds of ships and thousands of systems. As such, access to the fully-populated datasets TSIMS provides could greatly improve personnel accuracy and efficiency.

The AMSEC team is continuing to work with the system commanders and fleet personnel to integrate TSIMS in other areas of support, including moving from combat systems into hull, mechanical, and electrical, or the “the engineering plant.” As the Navy moves forward into the future and continues to accommodate resource and budget constraints, technology, such as TSIMS, will be essential to plan for future staffing and training requirements.

The response to TSIMS has been overwhelmingly positive, and the possibilities for its application throughout the Navy ship community and beyond are just beginning to unfold. Thanks to the hard work of AMSEC’s highly skilled team and its NSWCCD counterparts, TSIMS continues to receive high praise from CNAF, as well as the combat systems personnel onboard aircraft carriers. Thank you, AMSEC TSIMS team members.