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Duncan, OK – Sustainment Technologies announced today it has been awarded a 24 month, $1.7 million Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) contract by the US Air Force to take the company’s enhanced market research software solution into full-scale production for the 448th Supply Chain Management Wing (SCMW) out of Tinker AFB, Oklahoma.
TACFI is a new funding mechanism developed by AFVentures, in collaboration with the Department of the Air Force (DAF) SBIR/STTR Program, to ensure companies funded with promising SBIR and STTR Phase II funding are able to successfully transition into full-scale Air and Space Force Programs. Announced in December 2020, this newly created contracting vehicle was designed through the Supplemental Funding Pilot Program to facilitate delivery of strategic capabilities for the Department of the Air Force.
As part of its broader technology platform, Sustainment will deploy its enterprise Software-as-a-Service product that accelerates the procurement process for aircraft replacement parts. This specific tool, known as Enhanced Market Research, was developed in direct collaboration with contracting professionals with the 448th SCMW out of Tinker AFB, Oklahoma. These organizations constantly seek new sources of supply to manufacture replacement parts for their aviation assets, a challenge that has become a major obstacle for the Air Force. By applying AI to the company’s proprietary database of the nation’s small and medium-sized manufacturers, Sustainment allows for the strategic overview and rapid engagement with the entire U.S. manufacturing base. These efforts are part of the Air Force Life Cycle Management (AFLCMC) initiative to streamline the procurement process for all Air Force depot-level aircraft maintenance activities.
“We are excited that leadership across the AFLCMC organization recognizes the potential our software has to reshape the ways in which their contracting organizations collaborate with the defense industrial base,” stated Bret Boyd, Sustainment’s Co-Founder and CEO. “We have seen how our unique search algorithms and automated workflow solutions dramatically improve the speed of the Air Force’s supply chain to sustain its aviation assets.”
“By connecting the Air Force’s enterprise solution together with the online portal we launched in October for U.S. manufacturers, we can accelerate our efforts to revitalize the entire U.S. defense industrial base and reshore American manufacturing. This announcement is a big step towards us accomplishing such a transformative goal,” added Boyd.
Sustainment’s platform is designed to help manufacturing suppliers of all sizes more easily connect and conduct business with large commercial manufacturers and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). With its proprietary requirement-to-capability matching technology, it is considered the first AI-based Industry 4.0 market network platform for manufacturing.
An Air Force Director of Special Programs added, “Sustainment Technologies is using the Internet of Things and secure links to build an automated market research capability to search the web to connect parts and suppliers with Air Force Sustainment Center needs. This lays the groundwork for digital network confirmation of the sourcing ecosystem.”
Manufacturers can access the benefits of Sustainment for free at sustainment.tech. Co-Founder of Sustainment, Michael Morford, added, “I saw the need for our technology because of the many challenges manufacturers face trying to grow their businesses. As an owner of a small machine shop, I learned firsthand the confusing and time-consuming hurdles manufacturers face when trying to find new customers and offer manufacturing services to the Department of Defense.”
About Sustainment
Sustainment is a software platform that is working to reimagine the American manufacturing base as a hyperconnected, secure, and resilient ecosystem of local and regional suppliers who can more easily interact and transact with the government and industry organizations that rely on them. Our software enables US-based manufacturers to find and engage with the critical suppliers they need to build secure, resilient, domestic supplier networks.
