Advanced Tools and Methods to Improve Material Handling Equipment Overhaul
NCMS Project #: 142261
Problem: Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) activities provide lifecycle upkeep that includes periodic, unscheduled maintenance or damaged equipment repair, retrofit, or rebuild. Material Handling Equipment (MHE) such as forklifts and order pickers help to safely move products while loading and unloading trucks, palletizing goods, and retrieving items from storage. Forklift MRO must be performed to the highest quality to prevent the risk of accidents and injury if critical components fail.
Solution/Approach: The intent of this initiative seeks to pilot shipboard MHE as a surrogate to advance the state in modeling and simulation, advanced engineering, and maintenance methods to refurbish and overhaul a legacy forklift. This new approach will enable maintainers to simplify and complete maintenance repairs and refurbishments with higher levels of success, find better alternative sources of supply for parts, provide a more reliable material product, and reduce the overall time and cost for the maintenance effort.
Benefit: The completion of the project tasks will serve as a proof-of-concept of leveraging digital engineering technologies and advanced manufacturing processes to ensure parts and Bill of Materials (BOM) are available to support vehicle MRO activities in private industry.
Impact on Warfighter:
- Improve effectiveness and efficiency of vehicle overhaul activities
- Extend equipment lifespan
- Reduce maintenance and sustainment costs
- Increase warfighter readiness
- Unmatched traceability for documentation purposes
DOD Participation:
- Navy Supply Systems Command
- Red River Army Depot
Industry Participation:
- Ricardo Defense Inc.
- NCMS
Benefit Area(s):
- Cost Savings
- Repair Turn-Around Time
- Maintenance Avoidance and Reliability
- Obsolescence
- Safety
- Maintenance Management Improvement
- Improved Readiness
- Reliability Improvement
Focus Area:
- Advanced/Additive Manufacturing