2Is
High-Flying Solutions for the Defense Industry

An aircraft onboard a carrier ship may be grounded (AOG) just because a faulty part is unavailable for replacement or repair. An army strategist will tell you that having operational availability (AO) of the fleet is imperative. With limited and aging assets, the services must assure a reliable and cost-effective supply chain. This is what 2Is, an analytics-based supply-support company does; in a nutshell, they help their clients in managing the supply of parts and repairable components to a myriad of locations at varying tempo using advanced mathematical algorithms and analytics. The company has a primary focus on the aviation industry and works with both private and commercial suppliers in the arena. “We call it the Four Corner supply-support because we integrate the customer’s infrastructure, the maintainer, the supplier, and our customer’s customer to our system and imbed simulation technologies suitable for multi-year forecast and supply support,” says Glenn D. House Sr, president at 2Is.

In order to save costs, reduce time to fulfill, and increase AO, 2Is conducts a conceptual engineering study on platform, and then constructs a domain-specific Internet or Intranet-based supply support system tailored for a specific program. 2Is achieves superior accuracy by creating a statistical model of the platform, factoring in three aspects: the contract, the weapons system, and the clients’ internal processes. The model is then integrated with “assembly software-capable” building blocks allowing the Program Office to manage their program according to their practices. These capabilities include expert system proactive issue identification, end-to-end supply chain visibility, and cost forecasts budgets. These systems have saved millions of dollars per year during the periods of performance.

2Is’ technology stack is designed in a way that allows for tailoring of the solution in accordance with a client’s program within a short period. The software can be integrated into a customer’s ERP (SAP) system, and connections to a government or commercial database are also integrated as required. 2Is through their 2AP analytics platform performs a stochastic simulation to deliver “supply support” for inventory management to their clients.

An analytics-based supply-support company that helps its clients in managing the supply of parts to the correct locations using advanced mathematical algorithms and analytics

“Simply put, supply support means getting the right part to the right place at the right time with visibility and at a minimum cost to the client,” explains House. “This is what we at 2Is excel at; for example, we integrate the ordering process for required parts with a client’s ERP system and process, virtually reducing Administrative Lead Time. At the end of the day, the purpose of our end-to-end ordering capability is to connect the people who create the demand with the supplier who fulfills it, making sure the right level of consumables and repairable components meets contracted performance metrics.”

Many of 2Is’ clients require multi-currency and multi-forecasting for over two, five, and even ten years ahead, and this can only be done by use of probabilistic modeling and simulation. Results are derived by connecting the simulated feeds with the company’s supply-support system. 2AP offers cost-budgeting to make a variety of purchase methods possible such as Blanket Purchase Orders. The budgeting assists clients to save on costs by letting them stock up parts in groups than as singular items. By extending 2AP from maintainer to supplier, strategies such as Vendor Managed Inventory or Supplier Initiated Order are possible and can move cost from the Program Office to suppliers.

The company is Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 3 Certified, a testament to the continued success of 2Is’ management and staff over the years. Moving ahead, 2Is intends to continue its expansion into the commercial market segment in aviation and maintenance. The business aviation and military aviation industries are set to grow over the next ten years, and 2Is’ crew is looking at tapping into this forum. Forecasting methods like moving averages and classic forecasting have become outdated, and the need for high-end analytics fused with supply support is a necessity in the aviation industry.