Digitisation of Joint Service Manuals (JSM) for defence equipment and support

BACKGROUND

Digitisation of Joint Service Manuals (JSM) for Defence Equipment and Support Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) are the procurement arm of the UK Ministry of Defence. They have a pivotal role in fulfilling equipment requests from across the Front-Line Commands, Executive Agencies and At Arm’s Length Bodies such as the Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA). Their remit ranges from straightforward equipment procurement to the development of new technologies and ensuring the UK Armed Forces can maintain availability and readiness for a fleet of over 400 different platforms.

DE&S summarised the overall task as “to develop the Joint Service Manual (JSM) concept and codify the Receipt, Inspection, Issue, Storage & Maintenance (RIISM) Service Category”. CACI’s main task was to digitise the JSM by bringing them into the “COMPASS for Land” digitised group of capabilities. In fact, CACI were able to go beyond digital transformation of the RIISM manual by adding 3 other important manuals.

DE&S prioritised a solution that not only digitised JSMs but also facilitated improved compliance and included interactive features to enhance suppliers’ understanding of and adherence to JSMs, making the process easier for them.

THE CHALLENGE

The commercial documentation is complex, lengthy, and sometimes didn’t keep pace with the evolution of processes over time. Because of this:

• Compliance wasn’t high enough.
• Interpretations of the commercial documentation sometimes resulted in incorrect actions.
• DE&S needed a better way to support all actors in the procurement processes to save time, reduce individual differing interpretations, and improve compliance overall.

DE&S required a digitised version of its current paper-based product. This would ensure that JSM information could be found, searched, accessed, and condensed for ease of absorption, with clear explanations. The search function was important, aiming to make it easier to look across several JSMs for information and links.

THE SOLUTION

CACI created digitised JSMs with a flexible search facility, explanations of roles and responsibilities, and relevant dependencies involved in delivering items for DE&S. The solution enables searching across multiple JSMs, for instance a search for “quality” can be set to bring back all quality references in all JSMs. A user can bookmark favourite sections for repeat reference and can make suggestions in the solution for future enhancements of the functionality.

Mood was employed for the document digitisation aspect of the project. From a delivery perspective, this was an example of the CACI Mood team working alongside colleagues from other suppliers and within the Defence industry in a single delivery team under the overall management of Equinox, DE&S’s private sector programme delivery partner. This type of “Rainbow Team” approach worked well. Not only is Mood easy to integrate within a wider process that uses other software tools, but bringing different suppliers together into one team with a single leadership reduces barriers in communications and speeds up delivery.

Bringing the JSMs into the overall Mood Compass for Land solution brought extra benefits of a pre-existing sign-in apparatus, admin functions and feedback loops.

THE RESULTS

Users are reporting:

• It’s much easier to find the instructions they need.
• They have confidence that these are up to date.
• Fewer issues relating to process are arising.
• Efficiency is increasing.
• Communications between parties in an end-to-end process have been improved.
• Agreement is reached on actions faster, and with less debate.

In addition to the day-to-day operational benefits, the new digitised JSMs are supporting highly beneficial business analysis and root cause identification of areas for improvement.

THE FUTURE

CACI will continue to digitise JSMs as and when they are prioritised for action and will continue to make enhancements as required.

Although this Case Study focuses on a Defence context, the challenges outlined in this case study will be replicated across multiple industries and operations where adherence to instructions is critical, sometimes even for the preservation of life and limb, but the quantity, complexity and changing nature of those instructions mitigate against compliance.

*Compass for Land is a Mood software solution that digitised the Common Support Model

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