Industry Summary Articles

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (NSWC PHD) has reached a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Credential Engine, a non-profit entity that will map data and integrate competencies within the Enterprise Product Lifecycle Management Integrated Decision Environment (ePLM IDE) to improve product support.

The purpose of the CRADA is to research, develop, identify and close the gap between system and human performance requirements through the effective linkage of ratings, competencies, curriculum, assessments and credentials. Further analysis of the potential to use Credential Engine's Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL) to publish Navy credentials to the web-based Credential Registry will also be conducted.

The CRADA is part of the Acquisition Requirements for Training Transformation (ARTT) project, which is funded through Office of the Chief of Naval Operations Logistics Programs and Business Operations (OPNAV N41), and executed through Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) Directorate for Acquisition, Commonality and Expeditionary Warfare (SEA 06).

NSWC PHD Product Support Office (PSO) Enterprise Product Data and Learning Management Strategist Wayne Gafford serves as the principle investigator for the CRADA. 

“I’ve been working on integrating technical training data artifacts and processes into product lifecycle management systems,” said Gafford. “What we are looking to do is open the aperture of PLM to include the human aspect, such as the maintainer, the operator, and the troubleshooter. We’re looking to improve the lifecycle data management of things that are related to training.”

“What the Navy does not do right now is to configure and link credentials, ratings, competencies, learning objectives, curriculum or courseware in systems assessments,” continued Gafford. “By not having those things linked there is a built-in latency behind the deployed system. Bringing all of these training data artifacts and mapping them into PLM you get an immediate sense of concurrency. So if you have an engineering design change, we will know exactly all of those training-based things that need to be reviewed in real time, according to that change. It will ensure the person working on this system has the most accurate courseware. There’s no learning decay.”

“We want to manage training-based information with the same rigor as the way we manage technical manuals, maintenance tasks and parts lists,” he said. “These types of things could impact the way a maintenance planner goes about and does his job. If you think about it, the birthplace of technical training is really when you do the maintenance task analysis. It’s really when you start doing the operational, the troubleshooting, or the task analysis; because once you understand the activities that need to be performed on that system that is where you can determine what the competencies are and the learning objectives based on the unique activities that are required to maintain that system. When curriculum developers are integrated into the PLM they are going be seeing and utilizing their content development tool interfaces just as they always have, the difference is rather than having their technical courseware stored in some island location completely disconnected, their courseware that is technical in nature will be stored in the same common-source database as the technical manuals, as the maintenance task analysis, as the parts list, as the engineering drawing so all of your product support information including all of your training will be in the same place.”

NSWC PHD has continuously served a crucial role in data and information exchange agreements under major programs for the Department of Defense. SEA 06 promotes collaboration across the NAVSEA Enterprise in the advancement of integrated product support and to enable programs to deliver more cost effective and reliable mission-supporting ships and weapons systems, which aligns with Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Acquisition and Procurement’s mission criteria, “To facilitate and improve the acquisition system by developing innovative processes and tools… assuring our Sailors and Marines are mission capable and have a technological edge over our adversaries.” -story by Navy journalist J.W. Marcum

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