Clearwater, Fla.-based Alliant Defense Electronics Systems delivers technical manual publish-on-demand system to Defense Printing ServiceMinneapolis, June 24, 1996 Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) said its Defense Electronics Systems division in Clearwater, Fla., has delivered a "digital warehouse" containing all U.S. Navy technical manuals to the Defense Printing Service (DPS). Known as the Technical Manual Publish-on-Demand System (TMPODS), the project represents a three-year effort by the DPS (Philadelphia, Pa., operations) and Alliant to index, store, and service approximately 20 million pages of technical manuals for the U.S. Navy fleet. Bob Witham, president, Defense Electronics Systems, said TMPODS is the first print-on-demand system Alliant has developed and installed. "The design of TMPODS and its ability to automatically collate change pages into the basic technical manual offers a significant savings to the Navy estimated at $10 million annually," Witham said. "TMPODS completely eliminates the need for maintaining a pre-printed technical manual inventory, warehouse storage, and the fleet sailor man-hours needed to collate technical manual changes." TMPODS is a U.S. Department of Defense Joint Continuous Acquisition and Life Cycle Support (JCALS) initiative. The system accepts 2,500 to 3,500 electronic orders per week over the Internet and will accept orders in the future from JCALS. The average order consists of three technical manuals that equal 420 standard 8-1/2x11-inch pages and 88 feet of foldout pages. The system has a capacity to process over 5,000 orders in a standard two-shift, five-day work week. The print capacity is supported by five high-speed (90+ pages per minute) Xerox and Eastman Kodak networked printers and five foldout printers from Xerox and Océ. During the evaluation period in April 1996, TMPODS printed 3.7 million pages and 73 miles of foldout pages. It will concurrently produce CD-ROM sets for distribution to the fleet. "Alliant Techsystems' Defense Electronics Systems division has been in the advanced imaging strategies business for several years," said Witham. "We developed this system in response to customer specifications. Currently, we are using knowledge gained from TMPODS to develop a commercial Windows NT-based document warehouse product, scheduled for release in the fall of 1996. We will be marketing this product to any business or government agency that generates and maintains a large amount of documents. We also have substantial interest from OEMs to partner on this product." TMPODS consists of the following components:
A client/server application, TMPODS uses standard commercial software products such as Sybase's SQL Server and software developed by Alliant. A Visual Basic PC-based graphical user interface, operating under Microsoft Windows, allows the system user or operator to import documents, view and modify documents, and monitor production status. The system also contains a financial module that provides billing information and tracks all costs associated with order processing. The digital warehouse concept is expected to be deployed in mini- and micro-versions at other DPS sites over the next year. This effort complements the DoD JCALS and Joint Engineering Data Management Information and Control System programs, and the Defense Printing Service's ongoing effort to digitize 20 million technical data pages for the U.S. Air Force, Army and Marines. Alliant Techsystems' Defense Systems Group reported fiscal year 1996 revenues of $437 million. It employs approximately 2,500 people at facilities and offices in Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Wisconsin. Major customers include the U.S. Department of Defense, allied military services, and prime contractors. Alliant Techsystems is a $1.2 billion aerospace and defense company with approximately 7,700 employees in operations in 24 states. The company, headquartered in Hopkins, Minn., comprises four business groups: Aerospace Systems, Defense Systems, Marine Systems, and Emerging Business. |
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