The Direction Centrale du Matériel de l’Armée de Terre (Army Equipment Command) (DCMAT) is responsible for the technical availability of all the army’s land equipment, throughout its life cycle. It runs maintenance operations on all technical levels (NTI1 to NTI3).
These maintenance operations can only be carried out by using a complete technical document reference system, which is updated as and when developments are made and which is available to maintenance engineers.
The Sections Techniques de Marque (STM), technical experts on the equipment for which they are responsible, are responsible for the technical document reference system, and in particular, the specifications.
Why DCMAT has chosen Lascom ICS?
The specifications include the specification drawings (technical drawings), bills of materials, technical specifications and all documents relating to the technical operation of the equipment.
These specifications enable DCMAT to provide the STMs with a documentary reference for: monitoring the equipment’s applied configuration, in particular, its life cycle, using technical facts (field problems), carrying out development, modification and reparability studies in the context of their appraisal mission (development, corrective maintenance of NTI3, modification studies, general studies, etc.).
They can also be used to describe technical items that are used when defining equipment and also to describe the process for dismantling equipment when it is withdrawn from service.
To meet these requirements, DCMAT is required to hold all documents included in a specification, kept up-to-date, with references to previous versions. It has selected SEEDD to perform this task. The project was assigned to Thales Services, using the Lascom ICS software package as the basis. The project started at the beginning of 2007 and entered the production phase at the beginning of 2008.
The SEEDD solution is based on a technical data management solution that is proven, reliable and easy to use: Lascom ICS.
PLM Solution
The project within the DCMAT was conducted in partnership with the prime contractor Thales CIS. Lascom ICS solution was chosen because it offers complete document and configuration management functions. Using Lascom ICS’s highperformance configuration management technology, documents are easily grouped together into projects. They can be organised into items, folders, subfolders and documents. Update and modification notifications can be easily attached to documents and folders. With Lascom ICS, users also benefit from ergonomics that are suited to the complexity of these specifications.
Lascom ICS supersedes the old SEED EDM system used in the 1990s and which is now obsolete. All the data from the old system has now been transferred to Lascom ICS. The STMs now have a fully overhauled and operational system.
The application can also be used for digital data exchanges between the army’s various maintenance departments.
A tool for automatically loading specifications provided by manufacturers in electronic format has been developed by Lascom to facilitate the importing of data.
With output data, the STM sought can provide the requester with the documentation for an item of equipment in electronic or paper format.
