According to Honeywell, digital transformation has taken center stage as military services and their industry partners seek innovative ways to improve mission readiness.
By leveraging data insights on asset status at depots and military facilities, they aim to proactively maintain and repair equipment, ensuring optimal performance.
“Game-changing software and advanced analytics have arrived on the scene,” said Karen Miller, Senior Director and General Manager for Honeywell Forge Performance+ for Defense. “Secure, cloud-based software innovations can help the defense industrial base and discrete manufacturing operations improve asset uptime, boost operational excellence, reduce maintenance and operating costs, and foster collaboration between the assets, site managers, and staff.”
Studies reportedly indicate that asset-intensive organizations with significant investments in equipment and facilities can achieve 30-50% reductions in machine downtime, 10-30% increases in throughput, 15-30% gains in labor productivity, and 85% more accurate forecasting.
Introducing Honeywell Forge Performance+ for Defense
Miller and her team are actively collaborating with organizations in the defense industrial base and manufacturing sectors to integrate Performance+ into their operations. “These customers play important national defense roles,” she said. “They can use our software to improve supply chain resilience and meet their most critical commitments to the military units and warfighters who rely on them.”
Honeywell anticipates obtaining Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) certification by mid-2025. Meanwhile, the company is promoting the innovative Honeywell Forge software platform within the defense community and encouraging early adoption.
Miller added, “Performance+ for Defense will deliver enormous process improvements, reduce energy consumption, enable predictive maintenance, increase worker productivity, and much more. Performance+ for Defense can help defense depots and manufacturers inspect and secure asset health in real time, enhance cybersecurity for operational technology and meet their most critical commitments – efficiently, securely and affordably.”
As an Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solution, Performance+ for Defense is based on the proven Honeywell Forge Performance+ platform, already utilized in various asset-intensive industries worldwide.
Designed to maximize the performance of assets, personnel, and site operations, it is tailored for the organic industrial base, MROs, and manufacturing organizations.
Precision and Performance in Defense Operations
Historically, depots and bases have relied on individual tools and manual processes for coordinating essential operations. Performance+ for Defense employs a cloud-native Software as a Service (SaaS) model, integrating industrial functions related to assets, personnel, and sites into one platform. As a SaaS offering, it ensures regular feature updates and cybersecurity enhancements, reducing the maintenance burden on users.
According to Miller, “We developed this solution with the specific needs of defense agencies and their industry partners in mind. It offers consolidated performance metrics, actionable alerting and decision-making recommendations to optimize labor, inventory and energy costs and ensure that every resource is used efficiently.”
The platform includes robust access control to facilitate secure contractor and cross-domain access while enabling users to develop custom analytics quickly.
“These ecosystems are very complex and often struggle with many data silos,” she said. “Performance+ is agnostic to legacy systems and can integrate with any environment reducing the need to ‘rip and replace’ large amounts of infrastructure by integrating with existing IT and operational technology.”
Performance+ for Defense monitors, maintains and analyzes operations, Miller continued. “Our platform monitors operations in real-time to ensure efficiency and the highest product quality. It maintains mission readiness with predictive precision maintenance solutions that improve uptime and extend asset life. And it uses powerful analytics to drive continuous improvement, uncover trends and identify opportunities.”
As the defense MRO and manufacturing sectors embrace digitalization, Honeywell Forge Performance+ supports key players in achieving superior outcomes by:
Creating a Data-Centric Infrastructure
The platform enables organizations to modernize infrastructure with data-driven decisions, encouraging a digital-first approach. By ensuring data accessibility, security, and interoperability, it empowers real-time decision-making to position assets strategically and minimize cybersecurity risks. Transitioning from paper-based processes to digital workflows equips organizations to make informed decisions.
Optimizing Skilled Employees
By digitizing and optimizing industrial facilities, the platform enhances operational performance. Solutions like Asset Performance Management, Workforce Intelligence, and Operational Excellence allow employees to focus on core responsibilities, resulting in improved processes, reduced energy use, and better labor allocation.
Building Resilient Supply Chains
Addressing the critical need for robust supply chains and domestic production capabilities, Performance+ increases capacity, identifies bottlenecks, and improves resource management. This reduces material costs and repair times while mitigating security vulnerabilities.
“Honeywell Forge Performance+ has roots in Honeywell’s unique domain expertise as both a leading aerospace and defense company and premier supplier of industrial software solutions,” Miller said. “This is more than just a performance management tool. It’s a comprehensive solution that drives operational efficiency, ensures asset readiness and provides actionable insights so aerospace and defense organizations can achieve their mission objectives with greater precision and reliability.”
