US Air Force first to go wireless with EDS engineering data management system

EDS has unveiled what it claims is the first application of full-scale engineering product lifecycle management (PLM) software on a wireless device with its Teamcenter (formerly SDRC Metaphase) software on the new Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC. The announcement came at Microsoft’s launch of the Tablet PC in New York. The application was designed for the US Air Force, which is using the tablet and PLM software as part of its system to digitally maintain and repair aircraft. EDS is working with Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma to develop a solution called Integrated Point-of-Maintenance execution (I-POMX), which will run on the Tablet PC. Teamcenter can serve as any organisation’s product knowledge repository, covering cross-organisation data collaboration, visualisation, data management, process workflow and project management. Once rolled out at Tinker, the system will be used by Air Force technicians to increase productivity in retrieving and inputting aircraft maintenance data. The aim will be to streamline and automate what’s currently a paper-based system. “This tailored application demonstrates technology significantly improving productivity across an organization by distributing knowledge and process automation to individuals previously limited to paper-based systems,” says Tony Affuso, president of EDS PLM Solutions. “By leveraging new technology, EDS and Microsoft are bringing the benefits of real time information to those previously forced to work with dated material.” Says Alexandra Loeb, vice president of the Tablet PC division at Microsoft: “This application demonstrates that a tool such as the Tablet PC, together with software like Teamcenter, can significantly improve productivity and effectiveness by extending automation to every segment of the global enterprise.”