Electronic Technical Manuals (ETMs)

Help Army Eliminate Paper

The move from paper to interactive electronic technical manuals (ETMs) and then to interactive electronic technical manuals (IETMs) by industry and government has been an ongoing effort for the past several years.  Now, the Army has upped the ante.  Its IETM Strategic Plan, released in May, calls for adding modern maintenance capabilities that will anticipate and identify failures using on-board sensors and world-class diagnostic tools to the existing IETM's operation, maintenance, troubleshooting, and provisioning procedures.  The Division Chief of the Logistics Integration Agency (LIA), Robert Norton, outlined the Army's IETMs program in October at CALS Expo 2000.  

LIA and LOGSA (Logistics Support Activity) are leading the Army's move from paper-based technical manuals to digitized, electronic ones in three phases.  Technical manuals comprise approximately 80% of the Army's publication environment. In the mid 1990s, the Army had 22,500 technical manuals that comprised 3.5 million pages. Electronic technical manuals are the first stage away from paper.

IETMs take things one step further.  With interactive links, they can focus on diagnostic procedures with step-by-step instructions along with the technical data in current training manuals, including operation and maintenance procedures, troubleshooting, and provisioning requirements.  

Utilizing software applications, the Army's new IETMs can "lead" equipment repair through troubleshooting and diagnostic procedures.  Where current diagnostics are reactive (e.g., they depend on failure to occur before taking action), the latest IETMs (Phase III) can be pro-active.  For example, through the use of an Artificial Neural Network, LIA is attempting to expand the capability of currently-fielded IETMs for Turbine Engine Diagnostic (TED).  The new TEDANN (Turbine Engine Diagnostic Artificial Neural Network) will convert mechanical functions into verifiable electronic signals for analysis deviation from accepted norms.  The analytical process and ANN software will enable the Army to predict failure prior to occurrence, which should provide cost savings.  Rebuild costs can be reduced by avoiding catastrophic failure.

For further details on the Army's Strategic IETMs Plan, click here.