The support team at PPM Systems work to ensure that every solution offered to customers helps the equipment to achieve the maximum capability and cost effectiveness during its lifespan.

To achieve this, PPM Systems offers the following work:

• Contractor Logistic Support (CLS)
• Assessment of readiness levels
• Project Management.

Entry Into Service (EIS) work covered by PPM Systems often includes:

• Training Needs Analysis (TNA)
  Training Needs Analysis is used as a method of identifying gaps in employee skills and what training can be given to remove these.

• Availability, Reliability and Maintainability (AR&M)
  Availability, Reliability and Maintainability is used as a means of addressing vulnerabilities and weaknesses within a system. This is achieved throughout the design and build phase via structured analysis to identify potential failure points and ensure maintenance of the system is possible. Ease of Maintenance Assessments are also conducted as part of AR&M to validate the maintainability of the design and ensure devices more likely to fail during the life of the system can be replaced and that it fulfils the task it was designed for when required. This helps to achieve a standard of availability, performance and safety.

• Ease of Maintenance Assessment (EMA)
  The Ease of Maintenance Assessment is a process whereby each maintenance step is demonstrated to confirm the level of complexity relative to the level of training undertaken by the maintainer, their access to the required tools, and the amount of time required to complete the maintenance activity. Each maintenance level is well defined with a list of criteria that equipment must achieve in order to confirm whether it meets the in-service and ‘ease of maintenance’ standards. The reports are created by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) before being forwarded on to the team that requested an EMA providing recommendations for change or conformation that the system meets the required standards.

• Human Factors Integration (HFI)
  Human Factors Integration (HFI) is the process adopted to integrate human factors and ergonomics into the system’s engineering process. It, in essence, tries to reconcile the top down nature of system engineering with the iterative nature of a user-centered design approach. It often does this by creating a Human Factors Integration Plan (HFIP) that sits alongside the system development plan. The purpose of the HFIP is to define how the Human Factors Engineering activities, necessary for the successful delivery of a particular system, will be conducted. It establishes the guiding principles to be followed by the project to implement the best-practice Human Factors methods. As well as the principles involved, the plan normally describes the organisation, processes and controls necessary over the entire life cycle of the system from the concept phase through to decommissioning.

• ITHC (IT Health Check)
  An IT Health Check is a requirement for any IT system being deployed into a commercial or government space. The ITHC is used to access an adequate level of security, which is incorporated into the system to protect it and any connected systems from reasonable misuse and specific threat vectors. ITHCs differ from penetration tests in scale and scope, as they take into consideration both operational security and physical security of the system to define limitations, which can, for example, be the amount of time an aggressor has with the asset or their ease of access to the asset and therefore tools that can be used to attack it. Work can also include Life Cycle Cost (LCC) modelling to determine most cost effective maintenance concept.

• Level of Repair Analysis (LORA)
  Level of Repair Analysis is a process used to optimise the total cost of ownership of an asset or system. This process is conducted in conjunction with (AR&M) to identify the combination of risk of failure, ease of maintenance and cost of failure to determine if the system adheres to an acceptable level of risk in terms of repairability. LORA also determines at what stage each item should be repaired, replaced or disposed of based on the cost of doing so for each.

• Technical Documentation
  Supporting documents such as datasheets and user manuals can be produced that give technical information in regards to a product/system that is either under development or produced already.

Other EIS work PPM Systems can provide includes:

• Risk Analysis & Management
• Army Equipment Support Publications (AESP)
• National Computer Security Centre (NCSC) system accreditation
• Design and Delivery of Training Courses
• Development of maintenance policy
• Environmental design verification
• Failure Modes Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA)
• Initial Provisioning and Spares Recommendations
• Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)
• Production of Equipment Support Policy Document (ESPD)
• Project Management.

• Logistics Support Analysis (LSA)
  Logistics Support Analysis is used to pre-plan all the support requirements of a system design. The aim of LSA is that by having pre-prepared plans there will be an increase in efficiency and a reduction in costs for any system design. LSA also assist in determining associated processes and procedures required for handling and storage of any and all associated spares the MoD wishes to hold.

• Reliability and Maintainability (R&M)
  Reliability and maintainability is used to assess the probability of the unit continuing to operate after a set period of time and to log the frequency of failure in order to calculate the uptime. The maintainability reviews the speed at which the unit can be repaired, which is accounted for within the downtime and uptime logs.

• Spares Modelling
  Spares modelling is closely linked to AR&M allowing for strategic planning of spares on hand, identifying expected demands and level setting of on hand spares capability based on the cost of spares coupled, supplier lead times and impact of units going out of service pending delivery of spares.

• Technical Documentation
  Supporting documents such as datasheets and user manuals produced that give technical information in regards to a product/system that is either under development or produced already.

LSA work and support can additionally include:

• Safety and Environmental Analysis and Assurance
• Through Life Cost Planning (TLC)
• Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Analysis
• Bid Proposal
• Bid Evaluation and Marking
• Logistic Support Analysis Record (LSAR).

Whole Life Support and In-Service Support solutions are critical for maintaining the effectiveness of the most advanced equipment and capabilities.

In-Service Support (ISS) and Whole Life Support (WLS) work typically includes:

• Logistics Demonstration (Log Demo)
  Logistics Demonstration is an assessment associated with the LSA whereby the project delivery team demonstrate compliance with MoD logistics requirements in terms of packaging, labelling, and compliance with any specific requirements mandated by security classifications.

• Disposal
  Disposal focuses on the most efficient, cost effective and safest way to remove end-of-life and out-of-service products while still adhering to limitations due to classification, ensuring secure disposal of any sensitive assets in line with government requirements.

• Obsolescence Management and Strategic Planning
  Obsolescence Management and Strategic Planning are used to shield long-term capabilities from the consequences of supplied parts becoming obsolete, periodic part reviews and succession planning. If there is not a thorough plan in place, the ramifications can be drastic and include significant increase in lifecycle costs through equipment downtime or an inability to complete required repair activities.

Further ISS and WLS services PPM Systems can support you with:

• Post Design Service (PDS) tasks
• Maintainability and Reliability Demonstration Planning
• Failure Reporting Analysis and Corrective Action System (FRACAS)
• Mean Active Corrective Maintenance Time (MACMT)
• Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)
• Project Management
• Configuration Control
• Whole Fleet Management.

ISS provides peace of mind that a product or system is covered for its service life or for an agreed number of years. This includes calibrations and repairs. PPM Systems ISS agreements are typically for 10 years.

Suitably trained and qualified personnel are required to efficiently operate and maintain in service capabilities. PPM Systems provides an experienced training team who deliver high quality, cost effective, and customer approved training, to ensure personnel are both trained and assessed on a product in service.

For the Defence Sector, the PPM Systems training team have experience in evaluating requirements to produce training solutions in accordance with Joint Service Publication 822 (JSP822), the authoritative policy and guidance on defence training and education.

PPM Systems uses a SAT (Systems Approach to Training) process, which enables the team to evaluate the existing training packages to ensure the required standards (currency, relevancy and accuracy) are maintained.