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305 MXS implements AFSO21

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt.
  • 305th Maintenance Squadron
MCGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, NJ. --  Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century initiatives can be seen popping up all over McGuire. One of the recent initiatives comes from the 305th Maintenance Squadron Test, Measurement and Diagnostic Flight. 

Over the last two years, the 305th MXS TMDE Flight's equipment workload has increased from 10,900 TMDE items to over 12,500 items and will continue to increase to more than 14,000 items by the end of 2008. This is a workload increase of 25 percent with no additional manpower. The flight is currently authorized 50 people and due to PBD 720, the manning is dropping to 48. According to the manpower standard, a workload of 14,000 items would equate to 55 personnel. Something had to give - that's where AFSO21 came in. 

The TMDE Flight personnel were feeling the pressure of the workload and the customers felt it too since it had been taking 30 percent longer to return items to them. This had the potential of impacting missions not only at McGuire, but also Air National Guard and Reserve units in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvannia and Lajes Field, Azores. After talking to some of the customers, personnel in the TMDE Flight realized they were performing many unnecessary calibrations. 

"Over production is one of the worst types of waste," said Ward Abbett, Mainstream Management/AFSO21 consultant. 

This point was proven by Master Sgt. Rich Hibbard, a TMDE Section Supervisor. He identified one customer who owned 130 truck scales which had to be brought to the facility every six months. After working with them, he identified that they only used 75 of the truck scales on a daily basis. The TMDE Flight was able to place the remainder on War Readiness Material status, greatly reducing the number of times the customer had to bring the extra scales in. Instead of every six months, the customer now brings their WRM scales to the TMDE Flight every 18 months. Think of the effort required to take 55 scales that weigh 35 pounds each in for maintenance when they don't need to be. 

The TMDE Flight sat down and looked at the inventories of its customers. They realized many of them had numerous like items that were obsolete and items that were still being calibrated for missions that had gone away. Col. Randall Harvey, 305th Maintenance Group commander, offered the flight the chance to bring in a lean expert and do an AFSO21 Rapid Improvement Event. The TMDE Flight jumped at the chance to do so. 

Mr. Abbett met with TMDE flight personnel who said they believed they could reduce the number of calibrations performed by 20 percent per year. This did not require customers to turn in equipment, but gave them several options such as making test measurement equipment WRM, No Periodic Calibration, Calibration Before Use, Limited Certification (only calibrate the functions you use, not what the unit is capable of), and the last option of turning in excess/obsolete TMDE. 

The flight tested their AFSO21 lean ideas on three of their larger customers with different missions -- the 305th Communication Squadron, 305th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and the 108th Air Refueling Wing. Each of these customers provided key decision-makers who were able to brief and explain how they could use the above options. The decision-makers from these organizations were crucial to the successful outcome of this AFSO21 RIE. Fortunately, due to their leadership the flight was able to reduce the number of calibration they performed per year for these customers from 1054 to 843 -- a 20 percent reduction. There will also be tangible savings to the customers through reduced time spent tracking, shipping and maintaining TMDE accounts. If these savings can be achieved with all TMDE customers, the flight will save $150,000 per year in man-hour costs and make up for the manpower cuts they experienced. Most importantly, it will enable the TMDE Flight to continue to provide timely support to all customers. AFSO21 is not just a buzz-word, it is a great tool that can streamline and improve your operations -- it worked for the TMDE Flight and it can work for others.