IPS – Integrated Product Support
A holistic approach to the sustained availability of complex systems
Integrated Product Support helps you operate, maintain and continuously develop complex technical systems economically across their entire life cycle.
What is Integrated Product Support (IPS)?
Integrated Product Support — IPS for short — is a standardised, iterative approach to planning and optimising the logistic and technical support of complex systems.
IPS does not look at the finished product alone. Requirements from operation, maintenance, supply, training, technical documentation and infrastructure are taken into account during development. IPS thereby shapes the system design and ensures that a system not only fulfils its technical function, but can also be operated and supported economically.
IPS is usually structured into twelve interconnected elements. Methods of Logistics Support Analysis are among those used to influence system design and later life cycle costs as early as possible.
What does IPS give you?
- Economy – make life cycle costs transparent and reduce them sustainably
- High system availability – minimise downtime and increase readiness
- Design for supportability – account for operation and maintenance during development
- Optimised maintenance – develop technically justified and economical measures
- Demand-driven resource planning – size personnel, material, test equipment and training precisely
- Continuous improvement – use operational experience systematically to improve product and support
Are there established standards and specifications?
Yes. The internationally agreed ASD/AIA S-Series IPS Specifications are established in aviation and the defence sector in particular. They provide a common framework for planning, performing and exchanging Integrated Product Support data across the entire product life cycle.
The overarching SX000i specification describes the fundamental IPS processes and how the individual disciplines interact. It is complemented by specialised specifications, among them:
- S1000D – technical documentation
- S2000M – material management and spare parts supply
- S3000L – Logistics Support Analysis
- S4000P – preventive maintenance
- S5000F – collection and analysis of in-service data
- S6000T – training analysis and training design
The diagram below shows, by way of example, how selected ASD specifications interface with one another and what data they need to exchange. For clarity it covers only the central interfaces; the full landscape holds further relationships.
How does IPS work in practice?
IPS is not established in isolation. It requires all support disciplines to work together in a coordinated way throughout the entire project. The diagram below shows an example of how this plays out.
The diagram shows the typical course of an IPS project, from the initial concept phase (MCR) through the various assessment and review phases to ordering and delivery. The decisive point: activities in all IPS elements start in parallel as early as the first concept review — from logistics support analysis through materiel supply to training planning and infrastructure.
This ensures that requirements arising from operation and maintenance are not considered as an afterthought but shape the system design from the outset. Each review phase (SRR, PDR, CDR, QRR) marks a milestone at which the corresponding support concepts and data are validated — long before the system itself is delivered.
This coordinated approach is the foundation for a system that not only works technically but can also be operated economically.
How is IPS established successfully in an organisation?
Introducing IPS does not mean adopting every process and requirement of a specification unchanged. What matters is adapting the necessary activities to the product, the organisation, the project goals and the given conditions.
For this tailoring π3C draws on proven methods from the Six Sigma approach. Processes are analysed in a structured way, measurable goals are defined, and activities that add no value or are inefficient are reduced deliberately. The result is IPS processes that are traceable, robust and matched to your organisation's actual needs.
A durable IPS rollout also requires clearly defined roles, responsibilities, information flows and supporting IT processes. The principles of IT service management are therefore applied to the organisational and technical implementation as well.
The offering does not end with consulting and design. π3C also supports the operational execution of IPS activities and takes on specific tasks within your projects on request. These include, for example:
- performing Logistics Support Analyses
- developing maintenance and support concepts
- creating and maintaining product and support data
- planning spare parts, support equipment and personnel
- supporting technical documentation and training concepts
- analysing operating and maintenance data
- quality assurance and review of existing IPS results
- supporting the adoption and application of the ASD/AIA S-Series
This support extends from strategic direction through process design and IT implementation to concrete operational work.
Combining IPS, Six Sigma, data governance and IT service management produces not an isolated concept but a workable solution that integrates permanently into your organisation and system landscape.
Would you like to know more about IPS?