The 45th Space Wing
Knowledge Management Initiative
For more than 50 years, the Air Force's continuous participation in missile and space operations has been a particular source of pride for the 45th Space Wing and its predecessor organizations. The Wing's lineage dates back to the Air Force Division of the Joint Long Range Proving Ground, an Air Force/Army/Navy organization which was established on 1 October 1949 to manage missile testing and launch operations on the Eastern Range. The base was renamed Patrick Air Force Base in honor of Major General Mason M. Patrick on 1 August 1950. From these beginnings, the Eastern Range soon became one of the busiest and most important missile and space support ranges in the world.
Situation
The 45th Space Wing provides space launch and range support for Air Force, Department of Defense (DoD), civil, and commercial space launch missions. The diversity of organizations involved in launch and range operations significantly increases the need for effective communication and coordination in performing these complex and dynamic activities.
Critical Issue
Although much of the relevant launch information is in an automated form in various data stores, the communication and coordination among the diverse organizations involved remains a largely manual, paper-based process that depends upon frequent meetings to exchange information. This diversity of approach makes the automated sharing and integration of information among different organizations a daunting technical and organizational challenge for which only difficult, partial solutions currently exist.
The Vision
The 45th Space Wing Knowledge Management Initiative vision is to provide all stakeholders with relevant, integrated information on demand by delivering the right information, for the right person, at the right time.
MO Provided
Modus Operandi's powerful web-based Wave® product is a big part of the answer. The Wave product is known for its ability to break down barriers to enterprise information, manage knowledge assets, support team-based collaboration, and deliver the critical metrics for decision support and performance management. To meet the unique requirements of the 45th Space Wing, Wave is now being extended to handle more sophisticated enterprise information architectures and rapid deployment of new applications that leverage enterprise information. The completion of ACE and COSMOS will enable this outcome.
Expected Results
The Air Force expects that improved range schedule visibility will yield a 6:1 productivity gain for schedulers and increase resource availability by hundreds of hours. The Knowledge Management Framework will create the capability to remake processes by bringing information to points and in forms not possible before.
