Bradley Rhoton is the Marketing Manager for the Servigistics Business Unit at PTC. He leads and organizes the Servigistics client affinity group organizations and facilitates best practice sharing and knowledge transfer between PTC, PTC clients and industry thought leaders. For 13 years he has worked closely with Servigistics clients to help capture their service program accomplishments and share their success stories.
Emerging technologies are redefining what it means to be mission-ready. Across the Department of War (DoW), the fusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI), predictive analytics, and cloud-based sustainment systems is transforming operations from the flight line to the warehouse floor. These advancements are not only changing how the military maintains and deploys assets but are revolutionizing how readiness itself is achieved.
While AI has already proven its value in predictive maintenance, detecting potential equipment failures before they occur, the next frontier of transformation is happening upstream, in the service parts supply chain. Here, AI’s true power lies in its ability to anticipate needs before disruptions emerge, ensuring critical components are in place to keep missions on track and assets operational.
From reactive to proactive readiness
Dr. Sanjay Jagdale, Principal Architect at PTC and former professor of Systems and Industrial Engineering, has been at the forefront of guiding defense organizations, like Boeing Defense, US Coast Guard, Lockheed Martin, in applying AI and data science to solve persistent sustainment challenges. His work bridges academic research and real-world defense logistics, demonstrating how AI-driven intelligence can fundamentally reshape materiel readiness.
Drawing insights from research and field applications, including NASA’s aircraft engine data, which highlight how advanced AI models can analyze massive volumes of operational data to forecast demand, automate parts replenishment, and reduce planner workload. By removing uncertainty from logistics decisions, these tools empower defense organizations to act with precision and agility, qualities essential to sustaining mission tempo in an unpredictable global environment.
AI: The force multiplier for sustainment planning
AI is becoming a force multiplier in sustainment planning. By reducing manual analysis and enabling autonomous, data-informed decision-making, AI allows logistics and supply planners to focus on strategic priorities rather than routine tasks. The result: a more productive workforce and accelerated operational cycles, with fewer delays caused by data gaps or human error.
Predictive analytics for mission-critical readiness
AI and machine learning (ML)-driven predictive analytics are enhancing the ability to forecast component demand, optimize repair cycles, and pre-position inventory precisely where it’s needed most. These capabilities ensure that mission-critical assets remain available, reducing downtime and increasing equipment readiness. The shift from reactive repair to proactive sustainment directly supports the DoW’s vision for a resilient and responsive logistics enterprise.
Optimizing the service supply chain with AI
By integrating AI into multi-echelon optimization (MEO) models, organizations can manage readiness holistically, across depots, distribution centers, and field operations. AI-driven insights ensure alignment between supply, demand, and mission priorities. This integrated approach improves operational readiness and aligns with the DoW’s Digital Modernization Strategy, advancing a data-centric and interoperable sustainment ecosystem.
At the center of this transformation is PTC’s Servigistics platform, the world’s most advanced, purpose-built service supply chain optimization solution. Servigistics applies decades of defense sustainment experience and AI-driven science to optimize inventory investments, forecast parts demand, and ensure the right components are available when and where they’re needed most.
Trusted across the world’s most complex defense and commercial networks, Servigistics has consistently delivered measurable readiness gains, significant cost reductions, and higher mission availability. Its proven multi-echelon optimization engine, honed through decades of real-world deployments, enables decision-makers to continuously balance readiness objectives with cost, risk, and agility.
With Servigistics, sustainment organizations are managing supply chains by orchestrating intelligent readiness designed to anticipate, adapt, and respond at mission speed.
The future of readiness is intelligent
The evolution of materiel readiness depends on more than better data, it requires intelligent systems that can learn, adapt, and anticipate. As Dr. Jagdale’s work illustrates, AI is no longer a future promise but a present reality driving mission success. By harnessing predictive analytics, cloud technologies, and AI-driven automation, defense organizations are building the foundation for the next generation of sustainment, where readiness is continuously optimized.
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Servigistics revolutionizes service supply chain optimization with purpose-built industrial AI innovations.
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