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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.
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