FISC Case Study

The World’s Largest Single-Point Deepwater Fuel Terminal for the Department of Defense Uses a Best-in-Class Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) System to Consolidate and Report Maintenance and Supply Activities

Every driver knows how easy it is to “swipe” a credit card at a gas pump, swing through a service station for a 10-minute oil change, or run a car through a quick wash. But can you imagine the complications involved in servicing an aircraft carrier, submarine or military jet? The Navy needs much more than a local fuel depot. To ensure the war fighters are always ready, an entire Defense Fuel Support Point (DFSP) is needed.

One such support point is based at historic Pearl Harbor, the crossroads to two continents. Fleet and Industrial Supply Center (FISC), Defense Fuel Support Point, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is considered the “lead FISC” among six Navy terminals around the world. As such, FISC Pearl Harbor has the lead to drive best practices throughout the FISC fuel community.

“Our FISC fuel centers play a vital role in arranging the timely delivery of wholesale fuel to the fleet,” said a fuel analyst from FISC Pearl. “It’s imperative that we automate critical business functions such as fuel operations, preventive and corrective maintenance, purchasing, fuel testing and reporting. We also need a baseline configuration that can manage the data from all of our locations.”

This means developing strategies to effectively consolidate all six DFSP terminals into a “Single Platform Maximo” system. For 10 years, Total Resource Management, Inc. (TRM) has been a primary contractor for Maximo and key performance indicator (KPI) systems at FISC Pearl Harbor and FISC Yokosuka ( Japan) – projects that include consulting, development, support and training. TRM technologists have migrated through many iterations of Maximo and are in the planning stages for an upgrade to version 5.2. TRM also has been a special projects contractor for FISCs in Manchester ( Puget Sound, Washington) and San Diego ( California).

What can technology do for this high-level fuel operation?
“FISC Pearl Harbor is relying on us to integrate the technology needed to improve efficiency, productivity, accountability, and timely and accurate reporting,” said Jim Miwa, TRM’s director of systems engineering.

TRM is expert at doing just that. The company provides management consulting in facilities and asset management, requirements analysis, application development, database administration, application support, systems engineering, training and report development. Consultants always begin with a thorough assessment – in this case, of fuel operations at each of the six FISCs. TRM was able to perform all development and quality assurance at its Hawaii Advanced Technology Center before bringing applications to FISC.

Putting the tools into place
One of the biggest challenges is meeting best practices metrics. This project required the team to work to Performance Work Statements (PWS) and something the Navy calls Most Efficient Organization (MEO) metrics. These MEO metrics play a large role in determining the effectiveness of the PWSs. They are the Navy’s version of best practices.

Maximo is an essential application for capturing and reporting on MEO metrics. Gone are the days of manual calculations. With Maximo, data and metrics on fuel operations, maintenance, labor/material costs, fuel testing and more, are handled easily, automatically and accurately.

TRM consultants recommended two productivity tools designed to strengthen Maximo performance. TRM RulesManager is used to set field defaults on certain applications (such as fuel operations) and to assist with certain calculations. This capability quickly helped lighten the data entry load for users, and created clean and consistent data. TRM ScreenBuilder allows users to customize screens within the laboratory and fuel operation tracking applications.

The information collected in Maximo can become a vital element of executive management decision-making when transformed by additional business intelligence tools. These tools include KPI and MEO compliance reports. This essential data is delivered through TRM KPI Manager (see sidebar).

Making custom applications work
These powerful customization and analysis tools help manage specific challenges. For example, FISC Pearl Harbor uses a process for purchase and work orders that falls outside of the realm of preventive maintenance. Before becoming purchase orders, all purchase requests must be routed through an approval process that involves a few select individuals. Once approved, the purchase orders drive the work orders. Work orders must travel through the workflow process in order to obtain supervisory approval. After approval, these work orders eventually are assigned status designations.

Automating the workflow process has helped increase productivity and – more importantly – has created accountability by establishing a consistent business process. According to FISC personnel, users are pleased with the way workflow has helped to clearly define their roles in the purchasing and/or work order process. The new methods enable them to complete their daily tasks in a more timely and efficient manner.

Another Maximo custom application involves the Navy’s Petroleum, Oils, Lubricants - Quality Assurance Management System (POL-QAMS). Prior to POL-QAMS, FISC Pearl Harbor used a homegrown systems application that no longer had staff experienced to support it. TRM created a testing application that mimics the existing program, but allows it to reside within the overall Maximo system. The new application has been successfully deployed at four fuel terminals.

Because Maximo is focused on all areas of asset-intensive organizations, the FISCs have the opportunity to extend the benefits of Maximo to other departments. Any function that involves identification work, assignment and planning of resources (labor, material, services), identification of actual costs, or tracking of assets can make use of Maximo’s functionality.

Providing the support needed to meet challenges
TRM supplied seven or eight consultants/technologists onsite throughout the implementation process. TRM also has supplied training and developed a training manual for the users to help guide them through application enhancements.

The project hasn’t been without challenges, however.

“A critical challenge has been to ensure that we deliver solutions that match or exceed the communicated requirements within projected budgets, and all within the confines of the Department of Defense/Department of Navy security policies, guidelines and initiatives,” Miwa said. “And that’s a tall order.”

The FISC fuel analyst agrees. “The bigger challenge for us is anticipating, consulting and communicating requirements of which we may not be fully aware,” he said. “I expect the consultants we bring on board to deliver something new and different – leading-edge technologies, as well as creative solutions to unexpected situations. I rely on TRM for the quality and expertise of the people. The expectations are set high, and TRM has always delivered for us."

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