Integrated Logistics Support Overview
As defense budgets continue to shrink, maintaining operational effectiveness and repair efficiency while reducing costs are paramount goals. Controlling the target of this issue lies in overall logistics support. Therefore, in carrying out overall logistics support operations, the fundamental principle is to consider the cost-effectiveness of acquiring weapon systems and equipment. Based on the missions required by military units, the equipment functionality and prioritization required for mission execution are reviewed. This is supplemented by feedback on equipment reliability, maintainability, and supportability from logistic engineering, ensuring that selected equipment can meet the combat power needs of multiple missions and require minimal support costs.
Documentation for Overall Lifecycle Logistics Support
Throughout the entire lifecycle of weapon systems, from design and development to deployment and service, comprehensive and streamlined configuration documents need to be accumulated and established. This includes registration, accumulation, processing, updating, and reporting, collectively known as "configuration management." Following the concept of overall lifecycle logistics support, an "Integrated Product Team" (IPT) matrix structure and the requirements of the Computer-Aided Acquisition and Logistics Support (CALS) system are used to perform various tasks such as logistics management, support, and engineering using configuration data.
In summary, during the shipbuilding acquisition phase, suppliers should be required to provide complete configuration data in the format required by the military. During the service phase, correct transaction data should be obtained from the using and maintenance units. After processing through the configuration data management system, weapon system file integration is provided to support maintenance, supply, procurement, and logistics document management. This enables effective execution of equipment deployment after it enters service, utilizing configuration management as the core and configuration data as the basis to maximize benefits with limited resources.
From the above, it is evident that the overall lifecycle logistics support system is built upon logistics engineering and logistics support. Its external manifestations include maintenance policies and plans among the top ten tasks. These tasks provide clear guidance for project execution personnel regarding their scope of work.
During the design and construction phase, overall logistics work mainly involves planning logistics engineering in accordance with the design of the ship, systems, layout, seakeeping, protection, etc. Operations such as equipment reliability, maintainability, subsequent procurement (combined with Performance-Based Logistics), transportation, storage methods, and space are conducted using configuration management as the core. Based on the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) concept, iterative discussions aim to achieve proper assessment and optimal selection under the target of proper rates of need fulfillment, choosing equipment that balances shipbuilding and post-deployment support, and defining related document outputs and reviews.
Throughout the development process of weapon systems, the assessment and selection of systems, logistic support requirements, detailed design, development of supply items, feedback, and revisions must align with the operational requirements and appropriate logistic support of weapon systems. Therefore, the integration of design and post-integration operations is crucial for obtaining weapon systems that meet operational needs and proper logistic support.
Lifecycle Management
What the Navy refers to as lifecycle management primarily originates from the development of ship systems. From the determination of requirements (including operational requirements, system analysis, and investment outlines), the establishment of plans, through the stages of research and development verification (including conceptual design, demonstration confirmation, engineering development, and overall logistics support planning and design), production deployment (including acquisition and execution of various aspects of overall logistics support), operational support (including research and development, production, and performance enhancement), until the decommissioning of the ship, it is called the "ship's lifecycle," also known as the "full lifecycle of the ship."
During the lifecycle management process, corresponding logistic documents are inevitably produced. The development and establishment of various documents must be based on the configuration of ships and weapon systems. Through the processes of logistic engineering and logistic support, various document items that need to be established are reviewed, taking into account the requirements of CALS, standards, and the development of Integrated Logistics Support Plans (ILSP), and are obtained sequentially. The explanation of relevant logistic document output bases and processes is an indispensable component of lifecycle management.
In other words, from the inception of a weapon to its decommissioning, the process is divided into stages such as requirement determination, research and development verification, production deployment, operational support, and decommissioning. This allows managers and implementers to easily plan and execute operations in each stage, control the completion of tasks step by step, and ultimately achieve the goal of lifecycle management.