Introduction from our Managing Director, Phil Williams
Dear TD-Info World,
As we head towards the summer break, there has been a lot of activity in the TD-Info space this past month and I hope the rest of the newsletter will give you a flavour of what has been going on.
However, I am going to beg your indulgence to highlight my own work on through-life support. After two years of virtual meetings, the Integrated Product Support (IPS) world got back on the road with a conference in Seattle and meetings in Vienna, Munich, Toulouse and Stockholm. The output? A rejuvenation of our work on the S-Series of IPS standards that support through-life support, and progress towards adoption of the standards with:
- NATO moving towards producing a STANAG (standardization agreement) to adopt the S-Series, and
- the US DoD taking a huge step towards the same.
We have also agreed a new chair for the S4000P Steering Committee, one of several Steering Committees with European and US members, which continue to develop the S-Series of standards. Now, if all of the above was a mystery to you, let me assure you it is key to weapon system availability in the UK and beyond and if you wish to know more then please look up the Joint Information Standards Co-Ordination Team (JISCOT) here.
Indulgence over, have a good break everyone and as my wife would say, see you in the new term!
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Future Events – For a full list of events please click here
Date for your diary – Support Chain Seminar – 18-19 January 2023 |
Operational infrastructure and the drive for self-sustainment conference – 26-27 September 2022 – Royal Engineers Museum, Chatham
The Institute of Royal Engineers and Team Defence Information are pleased to announce this conference. The event will take place over two days at the RE Museum Chatham, with a light buffet and drinks for networking on the evening of the 26 September.
Read more here or email Dr Andie Mitchell-Johnson.
The M365 (Microsoft 365) Working Group is hoping to have an update session with Microsoft in early August. We will send out more details when we have them. To join this working group, email: Andy Corbett.
MoD Additive Manufacturing (AdM) as a Service Challenge – Virtual Networking Event
The MOD will be issuing an invitation to participate in an AdM Virtual Networking Opportunity to the Defence Sourcing Portal in early August for those companies with an interest in engaging in the MOD AdM as a Service Challenge. This will provide those companies who are not currently under contract in the defence support environment, an opportunity to identify themselves to those with an existing contract and potentially collaborate with them. It should be noted that whilst this opportunity is being facilitated by the MOD, they will not be actively securing any specific collaboration between industry participants. For more information, email Stu Olden
TD-Info Executive Team meeting – 24 August 2022 10:45am – 1:00pm
API4RAS Task Start Up Meeting – 31 August 2022 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Kick off activities to produce a thought piece on Application Programme interfaces for Defence Robotic and Autonomous systems. To register click here and to find out more click here or email Steve Green.
Industry Customers Engagement Forum (ICEF) – 5 September 2022 1:00-3:00pm
This is our regular industry engagement meeting, hosted by MOD, to address issues affecting industry-based consumers of MOD-provided services. Register here or email Tony Butler to find out more.
Team Defence Information Strategy Group – 7 September 2022 10:00am to 12:30pm, Palantir, 20 Soho Square, London
The Strategy Group has been established to interpret the 3* Advisory Board’s bi-annual areas of strategic focus along with outputs from the Team Defence Information Council to sponsor and approve Team Defence Information activities which align to these top-level objectives. For further information, please contact Philippa Arter.
Joint Information Standards Co-ordination Team (JISCOT) – 7 September 2022 1:45-4:00pm
The mission of the JISCOT is to co-ordinate for the UK, the MOD and industry representation in the identification, development, deployment and maintenance of a coherent set of standards to meet the needs of UK Defence. To find out more, contact Ciaran Dodd.
UK Simplified Technical English Working Group – 8 September 2022 1:30-3:00pm (online)
The UK Simplified Technical English Working Group (UKSTEWG) is a group of representatives from leading UK organisations and companies that use Simplified Technical English (STE). The main purpose of the UKSTEWG is to understand the UK’s requirement for STE, promote STE in the UK, be a source of information and guidance on STE. To find out more, contact Ciaran Dodd.
Recent Events
Team Defence Information (TD-Info) – Lunch and Learn Session for TD-Info members – Update
Last month Julian Dayment presented our first Lunch and Learn session with Jacobs, one of our lead sponsors. The session was attended by fifty-five staff from Jacobs, and it provided an overview of what TD-Info is, what the organisation does and how to get the most from being a member.
Here’s a summary of the feedback from Martin Boswell, Jacobs Business Development Director:
“The brief was well received by all. I know that some of those who attended have already logged on to the new TD Info website and I have been encouraged by their subsequent observations and enthusiastic comments.
Julian pitched the presentation perfectly, and I am most grateful to him for doing so. He certainly piqued interest and ensured that there is now a better and wider understanding of how TD Info operates and the current focus of work. It could not have gone better.”
If you are interested in a TD-Info Lunch and Learn session, please contact Julian Dayment or Andy Whatman.
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Recent Presentations, Publications, Surveys and Updates
Team Defence developing support for MOD DE&S Future Capability Group (FCG)
TD-Info continues to actively support and assist the FCG in kick-starting key initiatives identified jointly by DE&S and MOD Front Line Commands (FLCs). This is called the Open Innovation Laboratory (OIL).
Joint Strategy: Coherent, thought collaboration focal point for Industry engagement, consistent messaging, and communication across industry sectors
About: Command focused and sponsored problems/opportunities that are outcome based to enable exploitation and acquisition of products, upgrades, and services.
How? By the exploitation and utilization of the most appropriate existing Working Group or community.
Collaborating with: MOD problem owners and funders, Defence Primes and OEMs, Established tier suppliers, Solution architects and systems integrators, other sector supply chain, SMEs.
Other pending activities:
• Investigation into a Cloud based 3-D Printing Depository
• Investigation into ‘Smart’ Asset Tracking
• Hydrogen Network Event – ‘Watch this space’, details, timings and location of this face-to-face event being developed
These activities build upon the new engagement approach outlined in the FCG Industry Engagement Strategy released in July 2021. If you would like more information on OIL please contact either Steve Green or Darin Tudor.
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Launch of the Professional Development Working Group (PDWG)
The PDWG includes the Capability, People and Skills areas within MOD, industry, academia and professional institutes researching and designing the future skills landscape for the defence sector.
Its purpose is to provide evidenced analysis and assessment to inform thinking on what a professional defence enterprise person in Defence Support should look like in the next 5-10 years.
It is an enduring working group with the aim of improving Defence support effectiveness by understanding the drivers of future support constructs, environmental factors and operations that will shape the need for specific skills, competencies and experiences in its people.
Once these environmental factors are understood, the PDWG will agree a people requirement that will shape recommendations on their attraction/recruitment, engagement/training and retention vs workforce mobility (the Problem Statement).
Once the people specification is defined, the PDWG will understand the learning that emerges from this investigation and propose first steps on how this learning can be applied.
This initial assessment and recommendations will be completed within a target timescale of eight months from the establishment of the project. Dependent on the outcome, consideration will be given to reviewing progress towards shaping people specifications across the next 5-10 years.
For more information, please contact: Andie Johnson-Mitchell.
Read the latest Defence Suppliers Forum (DSF) newsletter here.
Support Advantage Charter – Actions Update
The Support Advantage Charter was signed at SupportNET in April 2022 and is on the GOV.UK website at Support Advantage Charter – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The Charter included many actions with six of these deemed as priority actions. TD-info is directly involved with two of these actions.
Click here for more information about the Charter, the status of the actions and the next steps.
Forthcoming Events – External to Team Defence-Information
Defence iQ’s Disruptive Technology for Defence Transformation Conference – 27-29 September 2022 – discount for TD-Info Members
TD-Info is pleased to be a media partner for the Disruptive Technology for Defence Transformation Digital Conference. This online event is organised by Defence iQ and is not a TD-Info event.
For more information, email partner@iqpc.co.uk TD-Info members can obtain a 15% discount by using the discount code TDINFO15.
Register your place and see the full conference agenda here.
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IPS User Forum 2022 Future Integrated Product Support – 17-20 October 2022, Vienna, Austria
The IPS User Forum 2022 in Vienna (IPS-UF#22) is the first User Forum worldwide for Integrated Product Support (IPS), also known as Integrated Lifecycle Support (ILS), bringing together ALL relevant S-Series IPS Specifications in one single event.
• SX000i: International specification for Integrated Product Support (IPS)
• S1000D: Technical Publications using a Common Source Database (CSDB)
• S2000M: Material Management
• S3000L: Logistics Support Analysis (LSA); aka Product Support Analysis (PSA)
• S4000P: Developing and continuously Improving Preventive Maintenance
• S5000F: In-Service Data Feedback
• S6000T: Training Analysis and Design
• ASD-STE100: Simplified Technical English – Preparation of Technical Documentation in a Controlled Language
To register or find out more, click here.
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IDGA’s Defense Logistics & Support Conference – 25-26 October 2022 Washington, DC
To register or to find out more, click here.