Optics Supply Planning System

The purpose of this study is to specify the design for an initial optics supply planning system for NIF, and to present quality assurance and test plans for the construction of the system as specified. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a large laser facility that is just starting operations. Thousands of specialized optics are required to operate the laser, and must be exchanged over time based on the laser shot plan and predictions of damage. Careful planning and tracking of optic exchanges is necessary because of the tight inventory of spare optics, and the long lead times for optics procurements and production changes. Automated inventory forecasting and production planning tools are required to replace existing manual processes. The optics groups members who are expected to use the supply planning system are the stakeholders for this project, and are divided into three groups. Each of these groups participated in a requirements specification that was used to develop this design. (1) Optics Management--These are the top level stakeholdersk, and the final decision makers. This group is the interface to shot operations, is ultimately responsible for optics supply, and decides which exchanges will be made. (2) Work Center Managers--This group manages the on site optics processing work centers. They schedule the daily work center operations, and are responsible for developing long term processing, equipment, and staffing plans. (3) Component Engineers--This group manages the vendor contracts for the manufacture of new optics and the off site rework of existing optics. They are responsible for sourcing vendors, negotiating contracts, and managing vendor processes. The scope of this analysis is to describe the structure and design details of a system that will meet all requirements that were described by stakeholders and documented in the analysis model for this project. The design specifies the architecture, components, interfaces, and data stores of the system at a level of detail that can be used for construction and deployment. Test and quality assurance plans are also included to insure that the system delivers all requirements when it is built. The design is for an automated forecasting prototype that allocates inventory and processing resources in response to potentially daily changes in the forecasted optics exchanges required to operate NIF. It will automatically calculate future inventory levels and processing rates based on current inventory and projected exchanges, procurements, and capacities. It will include screens that allow users to readily assess the feasibility of the forecast, identify failures to meet the demand, revise input data, and re-run the automated forecast calculation. In addition, the system will automatically retrieve the current exchange demand from an external database. Approved forecasts from the system will automatically update work order plans and procurement plans in the existing inventory and production control database. The timing of optics exchanges affects the forecast of damage and future exchanges, so an approved exchange plan will be fed back to the demand database and be used to calculate the next demand projection. The system will read the demand data and update the forecast and output files daily. This specification has been divided into two parts. This document, Part 1 lays out the major design decisions and specifies the architectural, component, and data structure designs. Part 2 will add interface designs, quality assurance and testing plans, and deployment details