Lockheed Martin sees efficiencies of integration

Increased efficiency across engineering and manufacturing is being reported by Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training & Support in the US, following go-live of an integrated system from IFS at its Orlando, Florida, and Fort Worth, Texas sites. Lockheed Martin has consolidated three legacy systems into a single integrated suite. “In addition to enhanced functionality, the great advantage is the elimination of the batch interfaces between our engineering and manufacturing processes,” explains Ralph Giffin, vice president of operations for Lockheed Martin. “The integrated solution provides real-time information from engineering to manufacturing, increasing our overall efficiency. “We selected IFS Applications because of its flexibility and intuitiveness; its component-based architecture, and its estimated total cost of ownership. “We’re very pleased that the final data migration was completed with 99.99 percent of the approximately 16 million records successfully migrating.” It’s another success for IFS, which, according to latest figures, seems to be turning the corner on its finances. Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training & Support selected IFS last year to provide supply chain management for the Autonomic Logistic Information System (ALIS), an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme. Also that year, the UK MoD chose Lockheed Martin UK as the prime systems integrator for the Joint Asset Management and Engineering Solutions first increment (JAMES1), part of the project to improve visibility of defence assets’ condition. The agreement with IFS Defence includes core software and implementation services. Other IFS users inaerospace and defence include the British, Norwegian, and South African defence organisations as well as the Eurofighter consortium. Commercial MRO shops and operators include Finnair, Bristow Helicopters, Aero-Dienst, Hawker Pacific, and Jet Turbine Services.