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Supply Management & Automation

NSPA's supply service management cater for initial provisioning and follow-on support.

NSPA's stock management system permits quick identification of the correct item using NATO Stock Numbers or other means of identification such as weapon system application codes, end item application codes, reparability codes, shelf-life type and design authority details, etc.

Automation and S2000M specification

A very effective and efficient support model in the domain of Material Management is the standardized process automation and end-to-end integration. Since 2001, NSPA successfully applies this concept to the NH90 and TIGER helicopters programmes and, more recently, to the A400M aircraft and the Alliance Ground Surveillance project (AGS).

Therefore, NSPA facilitates the automation and standard integration between stakeholders into all future weapon system life-cycle management services.

With the end-to-end automated electronic data processing, NSPA covers the supply chain disciplines of weapon systems over the complete life-cycle including (but not limited to) spare part catalogues, pricing and the related ordering of spare parts and repair services as well as the full order life-cycle with deliveries, transportation up to and including invoicing and payments.

NSPA acts as data hub connecting customers (Nations), contractors (Industries) and management agencies supporting electronic data exchange (EDI) in various formats (ASD/AIA S2000M, ATA Spec 2000, X12, SAP IDOC, etc),ensuring its services all the time and end-to-end.

The basis for our supply chain automation and integration is the ASD/AIA S2000M specification for material management, which defines all processes, the data model as well as the data exchanges.

In this supply chain, NSPA acts as a middle-man (agent) i.e. mainly as an integrator and a facilitator between Nations and Industries. Through this agency concept, we are de-coupling the communication between Nations and Industries so that each partner only needs to implement and operate one single procurement channel.

The data exchange (EDI) itself – i.e. how to communicate with our partners – is tailored to the respective capabilities of our partners i.e. via military standards (ASD/AIA S2000M, MILSTRIP), commercial standards (ANSI X12, ATA S2000) or via customer built solutions (e.g. SAP iDoc, custom xml).

In addition, NSPA has developed various on-line business portals that support the ASD/AIA S2000M business processes and those of other standards (such as ATA S2000 and ASC X12):

• N@MSIS (NATO @lectronic Materiel Support Information System) currently supports the two helicopter weapon systems NH90 and TIGER
• ALPS (A400M Logistic Portal System) supports the A400M airlifter
• NAP (NSPA Automation Portal) supports the NATO AGS

All portals automate the logistics processes agreed upon with the NSPA partners for the spare parts provisioning cycle, repair and overhaul and Depot Level Maintenance covering in electronic manner technical and commercial information, ordering, invoicing and payment.