BOSTON ENGINEERING CORPORATION — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: DLA181-001

Description

Defense Distribution Centers are facing challenges when trying to streamline their processes through modernization.  Many solutions today are cloud-based and that is extremely limiting to DoD application, especially in the production environment.  The proposed solution to two identified areas, weapon serial number tracking (WSNT), and asset tracking through the Stowe process, will utilize a siloed wireless network.  This allows for quick deployment and rapid testing and prototyping all the way to being capable of handling full operational environments.  The weapons serial number tracking system will be built as a component of a larger receiving application.  The WSNT system will utilize an optical character recognition (OCR) trained specifically to the user case identified by DLA leadership.  This system will help read and register serial number of weapons while allowing, maintaining, and guiding the user through the complete receiving process of such weapons.  Like the AR Inventory application created in an Initial Phase I effort the system will be modular to allow for the addition of future capabilities. The other area of improvement is Stowe.  There is currently a very high inaccuracy rate of stowed items at Distribution Centers.  By developing a system that not only guides the operator to the exact location of where to put the asset, it will also register the final placed location through a phased gate process.  Operators will have their Stowe lists spatially optimized to provide quicker stowing times.  The guidance provided will promote accurate placement of asset to be stowed but validation will be implemented to register the exact location of placement.  This Stowe solution will work off the foundational components created for Inventory in an Initial Phase I effort and be added to the suite of warehousing tools. Addressing some of these challenges identified by DLA leadership and building a system that allows for modularity and openness allows for expansion to other use cases and integration into other systems in use by DLA and its Distribution Centers today.