Summary
The Australian Army’s Land Engineering Agency (LEA) engaged Citadel Edge to support a Vehicle Health and Usage Monitoring System (vHUMS) trial designed to improve vehicle sustainment and fleet management.
The project integrated data collected from vehicle sensors with existing Army sustainment information to provide decision makers with improved visibility of fleet performance, maintenance requirements and operational availability.
The challenge
The Australian Army was seeking ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of vehicle sustainment while maintaining operational availability across its fleets.
A key area of interest was the use of real-world vehicle usage data to support maintenance decisions. Rather than relying solely on scheduled maintenance activities based on fleet-wide assumptions, Army wanted to explore whether maintenance could be informed by actual vehicle condition and usage patterns.
As part of a vHUMS trial, sensors were installed within selected vehicles to collect operational and maintenance data. Once this data became available, the Land Engineering Agency (LEA) needed a practical way to combine, analyse and present information from multiple sources using existing Army systems and capabilities.
The solution
Citadel Edge worked with Land Engineering Agency (LEA) personnel to develop a data integration and reporting capability that combined vehicle usage data with information already available through Army sustainment systems, including Military Integrated Logistics Information System (MILIS).
The solution transformed large volumes of sensor and maintenance data into role-specific dashboards that provided actionable information for different levels of Army decision-making, from strategic fleet planning through to day-to-day maintenance management.
Implementation
Citadel Edge integrated data from the vHUMS trial with existing Army sustainment information and developed a series of dashboards tailored to specific stakeholder groups.
These included:
- A Forces Command Dashboard providing a high-level view of fleet availability and readiness across formations and units.
- A Fleet Manager Dashboard supporting sustainment managers with maintenance and fleet performance information.
- An Army Maintenance Dashboard providing local maintenance managers with visibility of vehicle condition and sustainment activities within their area of responsibility.
The dashboards combined information from multiple data sources and presented it in a format aligned to the operational and sustainment responsibilities of each user group.
Outcome and impact
The vHUMS trial provided Army decision makers with improved visibility of vehicle usage, maintenance requirements and fleet availability.
By combining sensor information with existing sustainment data, the dashboards enabled different levels of the organisation to access information relevant to their responsibilities, from strategic planning through to local maintenance management.
The project demonstrated how operational vehicle data could be used to support more informed sustainment decisions and provided a practical foundation for future data-driven maintenance approaches across Army vehicle fleets.
