In Singapore, the Defence Science and
Technology Agency (DSTA), the central procurement agency for the
Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) has launched an
innovation call.
In this innovation
call, DSTA is in search for two innovative solutions:
(1) Secured inventory management solutions
This Request
for Proposal (RFP) seeks technically feasible concepts from
technology solution vendors to enable the concept of an unmanned store, with
the capability to verify inventory movement in/out of the store and update
inventory in near real-time.
Currently, Singapore Army relies on store personnel for
daily operations and management of its inventory of equipment. Store personnel
are required in all functions of the store, including opening/closing the store,
checking inventory status and replenishment, issuing of equipment, tracking
return of equipment, sending of equipment for maintenance and updating
inventory records.
As Inventory statuses and transactions are updated manually,
stock-taking and transaction tracking time consuming and subjected to human
errors. With the reduction of manpower foreseen in future, a smart, unmanned
store is envisaged to transform the existing inventory processes.
Through this Request for Proposal (RFP), DSTA seeks
technological solutions to digitalise and automate the military store
functions, realising a smart, unmanned store where inventory status and
transactions can be tracked and updated timely with less dependencies on the
store personnel. With an unmanned concept, there remains a need for more robust
mechanism to manage secured equipment in the store.
As such, this RFP seeks technically feasible concepts from
technology solution vendors to enable the concept of an unmanned store, with
the capability to verify inventory movement in/out of the store and update
inventory in near real-time.
The solution will have to fulfil the basic requirements of
being able to (1) enable user to request indent/loan, check equipment
availability and approve requests, (2) grant access control based on
transaction approvals and some form of digital ID, (3) identify required
equipment for transaction and indicate equipment within store to facilitate
self-retrieval by user, (4) track equipment retrieved by the user and tag to
his account automatically based on the approved requests and flag out incorrect
equipment, upon the exit of user, and (5) safeguard secured equipment for
retrieval and departure only by authorised user pre-assigned in the system.
(2) Smart maintenance mobile kiosk solutions
At the moment, there are a lot of manual paper work and
processes involved in the Army’s maintenance of its fleet of vehicles.
As such, DSTA is seeking
technological solutions to digitalise, automate and aid technicians
in their daily job routines, enhancing the efficiency, and allowing
less-skilled counterparts to also participate in the maintenance tasks.
This would realise a smart workshop, where operators are
able to aid technicians in the simpler tasks, and where administrative
works and processes are automated.
The ideal smart workshop will have the capability to guide
technicians or operators through maintenance leveraging augmented reality,
automate the filling of forms or create an enhanced user interface to
improve soldier experience and a mobile platform for providing smart
maintenance assistant solutions or equipment transportation.
The basic requirements for the solution are as follows, in
order of priority:
(1) Augmented reality solution (maximum of 5 use cases) to
display the step-by-step maintenance instructions, with augmented overlays to
aid technicians,
(2) Solution to enable user to automatically request for
equipment, check equipment availability and raise maintenance order,
(3) Solution to digitize an existing maintenance manual
(limited use cases), with the addition of natural language processing.
(4) Solution to design an interface on a server to
intuitively display the information in S/N 1.
(5) Hardware solution that aids the technicians in
transporting the spares of minimally 150 kg payload and smart maintenance
assistant solutions including charging ports etc. around the workshop.
(6) Back-up video guide displaying the maintenance tasks
within the augmented reality solution.
Both of the RFPs seek functional prototype to be fulfilled by 1 Nov 2018.
