.KEYWORD navy
.FLYINGHEAD PALM IN THE REAL WORLD
.TITLE The U.S. Navy puts Palm handhelds into service
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Many of the tasks undertaken by the U.S. Navy are performed in environments such as cramped submarines, aircrafts, and ships and without access to power outlets. Considering these factors, it’s no wonder the Navy is such a major consumer of Palm OS handhelds. In this article, Steve Niles looks at the variety of ways the U.S. Navy is putting Palm handhelds to use.
.AUTHOR Steve Niles
To maintain its military readiness, the United States Navy must perform all kinds of tasks, such as inspections of personnel, equipment, and working environments; personnel accounting and training; food preparation and meal service; equipment maintenance and inventory; etc. Many of these tasks are performed in environments such as on board Navy ships or in field environments where information must be captured on paper and later entered into a computer. Often these tasks must be conducted on cramped submarines, aircrafts, and ships and without access to power outlets.
Considering these factors, it’s no wonder the Navy is such a major consumer of Palm OS handhelds. These compact computers are ideal tools for members of this important military branch. In this article, we’ll look at the variety of ways the U.S. Navy is putting Palm handhelds to use.
.H1 The Navy’s Program Executive Office for Theater Surface Combatants
PEO TSC (The Navy’s Program Executive Office for Theater Surface Combatants) is responsible for ship procurement for the Navy. They monitor the two shipbuilding yards responsible for building the Navy’s destroyer fleet: ISI (Ingalls Shipbuilding Incorporated) in Pascagoula, MS (at http://www.ingalls.com), and BIW (Bath Iron Works) in Bath, ME (at http://www.gdbiw.com).
Before the Navy accepts a ship, the ship must pass a series of rigorous inspections known as builder’s trials. These continuous inspections cover every square foot and every piece of equipment on the ship. The inspectors must ensure that there are absolutely no deficiencies in the shipboard equipment. This thorough, detailed inspection process is critical toward ensuring that DDG 51 class destroyers like the one pictured in Figure A are war-ready, prepared for the rigors of the sea, and safe to carry U.S. service personnel.
.FIGPAIR A DDG 51 class destroyers must pass PEO TSC inspection.
Traditionally, Navy inspectors from the Supervisors of Shipbuilding at Bath and Pascagoula documented inspection discrepancies in spiral notebooks. The trial and inspection process generates approximately 3,000 discrepancies per ship. Upon completion of an inspection, inspectors would return to their desks and manually copy discrepancy information from their notebooks to standard forms. These forms would then be forwarded to administrative personnel to be entered into the main Oracle database.
Naturally, there were numerous problems with this method, in terms of the time it took and the chance of error. PEO TSC decided to replace its notebook and paper forms with an automated data-collection system that would standardize both product and process.
In the summer of 1998, PEO TSC contracted with the TMA Corporation to begin looking at Palm, Inc.’s handheld platform. Then, in November 1998, PEO TSC funded a proof of concept study for the development of a customized electronic forms application for BIW. By January 1999, approval to proceed was obtained and TMA developers, using Puma Technology’s Satellite Forms (at http://www.pumatech.com/Satellite_Forms_Enterprise.html), created a custom forms application to run on the Palm OS. The application was implemented in Bath in March 1999 and in Pascagoula in January 2000, thus automating the Navy’s manual data collection process for destroyer inspections.
.H1 The Department of the Navy, Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center
On July 10, Palm, Inc. announced that the Department of the Navy, Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center in Charleston, SC, issued a Basic Agreement to Palm for Palm.Net wireless service. Palm.Net is what powers the Palm VII series handheld computers. This is the first such purchasing agreement for Palm.Net wireless connectivity for government agency customers.
Under the terms of the agreement, SPAWAR will order service from Palm upon request of government agencies requiring such service. SPAWAR can issue CSAs (Communications Service Authorizations) to Palm for telecommunications service and equipment. Each CSA issued under the agreement will provide Palm with the information necessary to process the order.
SPAWAR is working with Palm’s technology in other ways as well. SPAWAR Chesapeake, for example, is extending much of the functionality of the Navy’s existing systems to the PDA format. SPAWAR Chesapeake has developed nine proof-of-concept applications for the Palm OS, several of which are already in use on a beta test basis on board ship. The SPAWAR PDA applications extend the reach of existing NTCSS (Naval Tactical Command Support System) and other corporate systems, aiding in the data collection process in the field.
When departments within the Navy come up with ideas for PDA applications, SPAWAR immediately begins work to make them realities. Since the PDA development cycle is so short (typically about eight to twelve weeks), SPAWAR can turn the projects around extremely quickly.
.H1 The Naval School of Health Sciences
Graduates of the NSHS (Naval School of Health Sciences), at http://nshs.med.navy.mil/, have to complete internships in military hospitals and then do a tour of duty as either a general medical officer, a flight surgeon, or an undersea medical officer. The school’s Graduate Medical Education Selection Board uses annual reviews to evaluate the students and assigns tours of duty based on their performance during the internships.
This review and assignment process was once done with printed rosters and paper evaluation forms. However, the NSHS found a way to streamline the review process and enable Selection Board members to more quickly and easily assign tours of duty thanks to the help of Impact Innovations Group (at http://www.impactinnovations.com), a Palm Enterprise Application Partner. The solution Impact Innovations Group developed and designed for the NSHS consists of two components. The Palm OS application was developed using CASL (Crosstalk Application Scripting Language) on the Palm platform, and the client side application was developed using Power Builder 5.0 to interface with the Navy’s existing SQL (Structured Query Language) Server database.
Now Selection Board members can download student internship data from the school’s database to their Palm OS handhelds. They can then review the data for each student, select the appropriate tour of duty for a particular individual, and then upload the selection results back to the database.
.H1 National Naval Medical Center
To ensure that the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD complies with fire codes, the medical center’s Fire Protection Prevention Department works with the Bethesda Fire Department to perform fire deficiency checks for the entire campus each month.
Inspectors need to record descriptions of any violations they discover. This was formerly accomplished using paper forms, a process that was further complicated by the fact that inspectors often maintained separate copies of the database. It became difficult to create a clear picture of the facility’s fire safety compliance over time.
Seeking a solution that could connect all inspectors to a single master database and that could provide the Fire Protection Prevention Department with statistics on fire code violations throughout the medical center, they too turned to Impact Innovations Group. The new solution utilizes an advanced, Windows-based GUI (Graphical User Interface) environment to replace the legacy database and Palm IIIx handhelds to manage the entire inspection process.
Documentation of fire code violations is made easy thanks to searchable drop-down lists, and violation descriptions are immediately correlated to both national and local code sets stored on the handhelds, eliminating the need to search multiple manuals and handbooks for codes. Then, using a Palm HotSync cradle, the inspectors can upload the violations to the master database on a PC. Violation notices are then issued automatically, making the campus safer for both patients and staff.
.H1 Naval Medical Center Portsmouth
Physicians at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth used to keep track of patients by recording medical information, patient histories, and to-do lists on index cards. Now, however, they use Palm III handhelds to maintain patient files and access reference materials, pager numbers, and notes from the care team. Naval Medical Center Portsmouth developed an application that runs on Palm III handhelds and is synchronized with Windows NT servers.
The application gives physicians an easy-to-reference format for maintaining patient files. This saves time and reduces the chance of errors associated with handwritten notes. Eventually, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth would like to develop a wireless network that will query a central database every night and synchronize the next day’s patient list.
.H1 USS Constellation and USS Abraham Lincoln
Besides guiding the aircraft, as shown in Figure B, LSOs (Landing Signal Officers) have another important role aboard aircraft carriers.
.FIGPAIR B An F/A-18E Super Hornet is directed to its spot for launch aboard the USS Constellation (CV-64).
After the plane has landed, the LSOs are responsible for recording how well a pilot approached and landed the plane, writing down a grade and additional comments in notebooks. This was made even more difficult by the fact that more than half of the landings took place at night, requiring LSOs to hold penlights in their mouths while writing the information. After flight-deck duty was finished, they had to manually type the details of every landing into a desktop computer.
Lt. Ken Schneider, Sea Control Squadron Three Eight (VS-38), and Lt. Mike LaPaglia, Sea Control Squadron Three Five (VS-35), decided a better method was needed, so they wrote a software application called PASS for the Palm OS using Metrowerks’ CodeWarrior software (at http://www.metrowerks.com/products/palm/). They created an electronic form, including shortcut keys and drop-down menus, that allows LSOs to quickly choose a grade and enter comments for each landing. The software is now being used by LSOs aboard the USS Constellation and USS Abraham Lincoln, pictured in Figure C.
.FIGPAIR C LSOs aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln benefit from Palm handhelds.
Another advantage of the Palm OS application is that LSOs no longer have to carry penlights because the Palm handheld’s backlight resolves the lighting problem. The Palm handheld solution also reduces the LSOs’ administrative duties by eliminating the need to manually type the data. The details of the day’s landings can be synchronized with the desktop computer via a quick HotSync operation.
.H1 Conclusion
As you can see, the U.S. Navy has found a vast amount of uses for Palm handhelds. The benefits are almost univerally the same:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Field level automation: the mobile devices enable field workers to access Navy-specific applications digitally, anytime and anywhere;
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Elimination of paper record keeping: no need to scribble notes onto paper forms;
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Elimination of lost data: data is captured digitally and synchronized directly with the required Navy database;
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Elimination of redundant data entry;
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Time and cost savings.
.END_LIST
These types of benefits aren’t limited to the Navy by any means. These same principles can apply, whatever business you’re in, whether it be land, sea, or boardroom. Almost any paper-based system can be automated as a Palm OS application. Let what these departments of the U.S. Navy have done be an inspiration for your business as you continue your Palm handheld integration.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on Ingalls Shipbuilding Incorporated, visit http://www.ingalls.com.
For more information on Bath Iron Works, visit http://www.gdbiw.com.
For more information on Puma Technology’s Satellite Forms, visit http://www.pumatech.com/Satellite_Forms_Enterprise.html.
For more information on Naval School of Health Sciences, visit http://nshs.med.navy.mil/.
For more information on Impact Innovations Group, visit http://www.impactinnovations.com.
For more information on Metrowerks’ CodeWarrior software, visit http://www.metrowerks.com/products/palm/.
For more information about Palm computers, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
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