Elements Associated with ILS – Interactive Technical Solutions

In addition to the ILS elements there are other disciplines associated with ILS. These will need to be considered when developing a support solution and detailed in the Supportability Assurance Plan.

SYSTEM DESIGN INFLUENCE
The analysis of mission and support systems to ensure that product supportability is optimised and whole life costs reduced.

QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Quality Management (QM) aims to establish and improve organisational performance at both the project and corporate level and act as an enabler to:
Increasing confidence that products procured will satisfy customer requirements;
Identification of improvement opportunities and determination of priorities;
Ensuring the availability of competent personnel.

ASSET MANAGEMENT
In service, Asset Management is the effective allocation of assets, configured to task, supported through the planning and implementation of engineering support. In summary Asset Management covers the following functions:
All aspects of the Maintenance, Repair, Modification and Overhaul (MRMO) of the product;
The management of product configuration;
The management of product in units (ownership, usage and tasking);
The management & tracking of repairable product in repair loops.

RISK MANAGEMENT
Risk Management may be defined as the systematic application of management policies, procedures and practices to the tasks of establishing the context, identifying, analysing, planning and managing Risks in a way that will enable organisations to minimise threats and maximise opportunities in a cost-effective way. A Risk is defined as the combination of the Probability of an Event occurring and its Consequences on objectives.

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Safety Management Policy requires those procuring, supporting and operating a product to manage safety performance and reduce risks to As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP) levels in every lifecycle phase. Improving the safety of product helps reduce accidents, spend money more effectively and comply with policy and legislation. A documented Safety Management System is the primary mechanism used to achieve these aims, through the production of a Safety Case and supervised by a Project Safety Committee.

COMMERCIAL AND CONTRACT MANAGEMENT
Negotiating contracts can be a complex business because they regulate the relationship between a purchaser and suppliers. If the contract is not right, the relationship will not be right and the quality of the product will suffer.

COMPUTER SUPPORT AND SOFTWARE SUPPORT
The facilities, hardware, software and manpower needed to operate and support computer
systems.

IN-SERVICE MONITORING OF LOGISTIC PERFORMANCE
The gathering of Reliability, Maintainability and Support data realised in-service, which must be recorded and compared with predicted data. The comparison of anticipated and actual performance and in-service costs permits decisions to be made which may lead to changes in the support strategy, to manage TLF by improving the design and/or supportability characteristics as appropriate.
The comparison of actual R&M data with the prediction must be undertaken on a regular basis to identify:

Additionally, the monitoring of trends will allow problems to be detected and eliminated before they become a major issue.

LOGISTIC INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Everybody involved in Logistics needs information to do their job, whether they are operating the equipment, in the Supply Chain, the Office or the Factory. Information must be available to everyone quickly and easily, no matter where or when it was created and when they get it, it must provide a single, accurate view of the truth. In order to handle this data, information technology – hardware, software, data structures must be setup that is reliable and fit for purpose.

CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT
Configuration Management applied over the life cycle of a project provides control and visibility of the product’s specification and its functional and physical attributes; it provides verifiable evidence that the product is capable of meeting with requirements and is identified in sufficient detail to aid supportability throughout the life cycle.

OBSOLESCENCE MANAGEMENT
The process conducted to ensure that product obsolescence is managed throughout the life of a product. Obsolescence affects all product, software, tools, processes, support product, standards and specifications. It impacts upon all stages of the life of the product. It is inevitable, may be expensive and cannot be ignored, but its impact and cost can be minimised by forethought and careful planning. The objective of obsolescence management is to ensure that obsolescence is managed as an integral part of design, development, production and in service support in order to minimise its cost and impact throughout the product life cycle.