May - Library

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Equipment Readiness and Visibility Using Honeycomb Maps
view shows the maintenance status for the three LAV- 2 5 ’s under
repair, as shown in Exhibit 5. Vehicle number V023 had a due date of
September 15 t h , but is now expected to be available on September 30 t h ,
or 15 days after the original due date. Since this vehicle was not
released from the shop on the scheduled due date, the MR-rating has
dropped below 85%.
At this point the analyst can evaluate maintenance either from an
o rganizational perspective (left-hand branch) or from a specific re p a i r
o rder perspective (right-hand branch). The organizational perspective
provides the analyst the complete detail of repair work orders, their
status, associated equipment, due dates, and late status for a
p a rticular organizational unit. Naturally, this information can be
queried and sorted using simple database tools. The organizational
view allows the analyst or Commander to evaluate the readiness detail
of the entire Marine Corps and/or down to the smallest unit by
evaluating the complete repair status of all pieces of equipment
assigned to the unit. This view will reveal the underlying causes for
the readiness status for a particular unit. For example, the unit
readiness analyst could evaluate all the equipment in maintenance
and reassign resources to accomplish the most important tasks or to
Exhibit 6. Repair Cycle Visibility
reduce bottlenecks. Commanders at higher levels could evaluate
maintenance conditions and redistribute re s o u rces acro s s
subordinate units to increase the overall readiness of the command.
For example, the commander may be waiting on a diff e rent but
specific part for trucks. By reprioritizing the parts that are actually
possessed, the trucks may be repaired more quickly than if left as an
unattended process.
A l t e rn a t i v e l y, the analyst can drill into the repair order view, as
shown in right-hand pathway in Exhibit 5. This view explains why the
L AV25-V023 is past due, by indicating the reason for the repair and
the timeline status of the re p a i r. Many delayed repairs are due to part
shortages. In order to evaluate the part shortage the analyst needs
to access the material supply system. MERIT makes this access
transparent. The analyst can click on the “Shrt Parts” label in either
the organizational listing or repair order listing to move into the supply
system. The supply system provides the analyst the ord e red part
detail. This would include the part number, due date, status, expected
ship date, and other pieces of relevant part number information. Fro m
this detail the analyst can determine if the expected equipment due
date is reasonable. As can be seen in this example, there is a