JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J.- -- The 305th Maintenance Group, Boeing representatives and foreign partner nations United Kingdom and Australian military services joined together for a workshop at the C-17 Globemaster III Engine Change Lean Event here Sept. 18 – 22.
The Boeing Sustaining Engineering and Fleet Performance Team concluded a 2016 fiscal year engine removal analysis. The analysis revealed an increase in non-mission capable hours attributed to engine removals had increased by 43 percent in fiscal year 2016 compared to fiscal year 2015.
“305th Air Mobility Wing has a highly effective and motivated continuous process improvement team between the wing and group level,” said Tech. Sgt. Scott C. Jacobs, 305th Maintenance Group C-17 engine change lean event project lead. “This requires cross command, including cross nation coordination to bring all these personnel into one location.”
Leadership’s intent of the events workshop was to diagram the current state of an unscheduled C-17 jet engine removal and installation procedure. They pulled together resources to pinpoint solutions to improve the engine change process not just as an installation initiative but as a C-17 Fleet initiative.
“At the moment we have just mapped the process and the steps that we take to change an engine,” said Flight Lieutenant Bryn B. Mottershead Australian Air Force foreign liaison officer. “Next we’re going into detailed discussions of how each of our partners and each of the different bases does it differently.”
The group identified areas for improvement and then developed a future map incorporating the suggested improvement action plans to see how and where these changes could be applied, such as proficiencies and training methods.
“Some of the changes that they are implementing will make their jobs a little bit easier,” said Master Sgt. Shawn C. Mcduff, 305th Maintenance Group continuous process improvement program manager. “Some of the ideas are to standardize the types of tools that are needed, training.”
The overall goal was to produce a more standardized and efficient engine removal and installation process for maintainers across the fleet.
“If we streamline the process and make it easier to understand, people will feel better about their jobs, get the job done quickly and they’ll feel the immediate impacts of enhancing the warfighters experience by getting that aircraft back on the line,” said Flight Lieutenant Bryn B. Mottershead Australian Air Force foreign liaison officer. “It should make the process a lot less frustrating, a lot less time wasted and more ability for the maintainer to self-assess and be able to work independently.”
Typically continuous process improvement events are limited within a group, wing or command not usually including foreign military members to participate. However the C-17 Engine Change Lean event expanded and benefited to have Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve Command, Pacific Air Force, Air Mobility Command representatives and two partner nations Australia and United Kingdom in attendance.
“All of these locations brought their individual experiences, ideas, and requests for improvement to the table,” said Jacobs. “This large spectrum of knowledge and gathering of system matter experts was a historic event. Bringing together this kind of experience to derive solutions to solve this problem was amazing.”