Every ship in the Navy needs spare parts. A modern guided missile frigate has more than a hundred thousand.

Making sure that Australian Naval ships carry all the spare parts they need is an intricate task, but APLCRATES will make it easy.

APLCRATES (Assembly Parts List - Constructive Reassessment and Tracking Expert System) is an 'expert system' which keeps track of every part in every vessel: how much it costs, its size, description, importance, maintenance requirements, even whether it is hazardous.

ISSC is a joint venture of IBM Australia and Lend Lease Corporation. The Navy commissioned ISSC and CSIRO to develop a software system to make the best use of both financial and space limitations.

"Not only will APLCRATES make better use of Navy resources, it will reduce training time for naval stores personnel from six months to one week, and reduce supervison time by three quarters," said Dr John O'Callaghan, Chief of CSIRO's Division of Information Technology.

"The system can be applied to other navies and other industries," said Dr O'Callaghan. "We and our partners are investigating a number of export opportunities for this Australian development."

Mr Craig Lindley, leader of the CSIRO project group, explained that the Navy's requirements demanded an 'expert systems' approach, building on the experience that CSIRO has in designing and developing this kind of innovative system.

APLCRATES was formally launched at a Navy site in Canberra this month.

More information from: Dr John O'Callaghan 06-2167001 or Kate Brown 02-9325 3102