Effective Partnering on CP-140 OEMS Program

Thanks to last night's steak dinner, everyone is ready to roll this morning at the P-3 IOSC's last day.

Michel Lechmann from Nova Scotia-based CarteNav Solutions jump-started the day with his presentation on partnerships that supported the CP-140 Overland Equipment Mission System (OEMS).

The need for an upgraded OEMS on the CP-140 fleet was needed to support the 2010 Vancover Olympics. There was a short project turnaround time and a lot of contractors, including CarteNav. In many instances, this equation wouldn't work. With OEMS, it did.

But how?

Lechmann attributed the success of the project to a number of factors - technical and operational.

From a technical aspect lessons learned included:
- Relying on an overall system approach
- Understanding the value of sensor management
- Deploying a flexible moving map display
- Integrating efficient UI
- Designing an integration Box (ISIS)
- Understanding COTS vs. MOTS or that nothing is ready to buy off the shelf
- Use real-time integration

From an operational aspect, lessons learned included:
- Partnership is key
- Competent technical project manager is essential
- Treat commercial partners as part of the team
- Real time integration is necessary
- Understanding "alpha" hardware vs. COTS (work as a team to fix issues and deploy)
- Select the right prime (L3 in this case)