British Armed Forces save £20m helped by Avellino Discovery
· Avellino Discovery, a data profiling & analysis solution, is helping the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), win efficiencies in supply chains supporting the Army, Navy and Air Force · The solution is enabling inaccurate inventory data to be identified so it can be cleansed
(PRWEB) October 25, 2002
23rd October 2002, Aldermaston, Berkshire, UK: Avellino, a UK-based data integration solutions provider, today announced that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) has implemented its data profiling and analysis solution Avellino Discovery™. The solution is being used to help ensure the British Armed Forces are supported by a cost-effective, responsive and safe supply chain - and, in line with the Strategic Defence Review initiative, is providing value-for-money to British taxpayers.
The DLO is responsible for supporting the British Armed Forces. It has to manage items efficiently, cost effectively and safely.
"Accurate inventory data is essential to an effective supply chain, said MoD spokesman Group Captain Mark Neal. "The Defence Logistics Organisation is using Avellino Discovery as one of its solutions in a data-cleansing project. It is helping us deliver the cost reductions required while improving further worldwide support of the British Armed Forces."
The Royal Navy, Army and RAF each have their own inventory management systems. These use standard codes to detail thousands of 'items of supply' and their logistical attributes (type of item, shelf life, packaging type etc). The Royal Navy alone has access to over half a million items of supply and in such complex and large supply chains as those of the British Forces, even occasional data errors can have a major impact. They could easily contribute to additional procurement and logistical costs and delays.
An inaccurate packaging code could mean an important electronic device being improperly protected for transport, arriving damaged and thus delaying an operation. If 'number per pack' is incorrectly noted, then too many or too few items might be ordered causing unnecessary expense or delay. Incorrect shelf life information could result in items deteriorating needlessly on a shelf.
The Cleansing Project (TCP) is part of the DLO and receives a monthly download from each of the Forces' inventory management systems. The team uses Avellino Discovery to investigate the inventory item attribute data. It automatically detects missing or rogue data entries and highlights them. The data is then returned to the authorised owners of the databases who can very easily resolve the highlighted differences.
"The practical value of Avellino Discovery is that it identifies dirty data which can then be cleansed. This enables the DLO to manage its supply chain more effectively. We can reduce costs and delays and maintain our excellent health & safety record," said Gp Capt Neal.
"Avellino Discovery was chosen because it is accurate, fast, easy to use and able to cope with our huge data volumes," he added. "When we looked into the problem, it was suggested that it could take 100 staff, 178 years to manually validate all the DLO inventory management data. We established that Avellino Discovery would take just over an hour! This was based on 1.7 million records and assumed seven attributes per record."
Tony Rodriguez, CEO at Avellino said, "Organisations are beginning to realise that levels of data quality influence the overall performance of the business. The approach to data quality being taken by the MOD's Defence Logistics Organisation will help them ensure that an efficient supply chain supports the diverse logistic needs of the British Armed Forces in an increasingly cost-effective manner."
In a later statement, Lt Col Nigel Stafford, head of TCP at the MoD-DLO, revealed that since project commencement in September 2000, his team had delivered estimated savings of some £20m in 24 months. Total project costs over the same period were approximately £2.3m.
About the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO)
The Defence Logistics Organisation is the MOD body responsible for providing joint logistic support to the UK's Armed Forces. Logistic support is vital to the maintenance and supply of everything from food, fuel and fighter aircraft to ships and satellites.
The DLO is the single largest organisation in the MOD, with an annual spend of over £6 billion and £20 billion worth of assets spread across some 80 major UK sites. It employs 33,000 staff - many of whom work in our 68 Integrated Project Teams delivering support on individual pieces of equipment, although others work in a range of units and agencies responsible for the supply of vital support services such as communications, storage, transport, fuel, munitions and food.
For more information see:
Http://www. mod. uk/dlo/ (http://www. mod. uk/dlo/)
Http://www. mod. uk/issues/acquisition/dlo. htm (http://www. mod. uk/issues/acquisition/dlo. htm)
For the MOD press room & photography see:
Http://news. mod. uk/ (http://news. mod. uk/)
The Forces' Inventory Management Systems & The Cleansing Project (TCP)
The Royal Navy, RAF and Army each have inventory management systems. Each holds details of hundreds of thousands of 'items of supply' (inventory types) using unique DLO and NATO codes to describe inventory types and their logistical attributes. Bolt types to weapons types to entire aircraft types form 'items of supply'. Each item of supply is also afforded a set of logistical attributes such as 'number per pack', 'packaging type', 'shelf life', weight', 'hazardous/non-hazardous' and others to facilitate ordering, proper handling, movement, storage and other logistical processes.
In January 2002, the British Navy alone had some 510,770 unique items of supply within its inventory management system. Using Avellino Discovery, the DLO-TCP team identified 56,035 rogue or missing entries against the single item attribute 'Packaging Code'. In May, following cleansing, DLO-TCP identified just 99 errors in a data set of 504,745. Data in all attribute areas across all of the Forces' Inventory Management Systems is being profiled and analysed by Avellino Discovery.
Avellino Discovery can support huge data volumes - well into the terabyte range. It provides a completely accurate view of the source data at all levels of detail. It enables the DLO's TCP team to discover the true content, structure, relationships and quality of data. DLO-TCP can even drill down into the actual data to view suspected data quality exceptions in context. Avellino Discovery is also non-invasive. This means that the MOD knows the profiling process will highlight errors for authorised personnel to rectify - but cannot itself change data in any way.
About Avellino
Founded in 1997, Avellino is an independent provider of enterprise solutions that enable organisations to integrate and migrate data, and manage data quality accurately and effectively. Avellino has set the standard for data profiling and analysis with its flagship software product, Avellino Discovery. Launched in November 2000, Avellino Discovery is used worldwide by many blue-chip corporations, including, Abbey National, BT, Co-operative Insurance Services, EDS, Ford Financial Europe, Ministry of Defence, Old Mutual, RAC and Sun Life of Canada. Avellino's headquarters are in Aldermaston, Berkshire, UK, with a US office based in Austin, Texas and representative offices located in the Netherlands, Spain, South America and Switzerland. Avellino's website is located at http://www. avellino. com (http://www. avellino. com)
About Avellino Discovery™
Avellino Discovery automates the profiling and analysis of data to be integrated and migrated to new systems and business applications, and provides a detailed description of the data content, structure, rules and quality. Because it does not rely on data definition rules, metadata or out-of-date documentation, it is far more accurate than manual methods and eliminates the assumptions that can lead to project failure. Avellino Discovery enables organisations to accurately plan their data integration and migration projects, reduce risks associated with data quality problems, reduce cost and increase productivity of data analysis by as much as 90% over manual methods.
For further information please contact:
Derek Harris
Oast Communications
Telephone: +44 (0) 1959 568512
Email: derekh@oastcommunications. com
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