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Lean logistics with an attitude

  • Published
  • By Chief Master Sgt. Jonathan Barnette
  • 305th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron
MCGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. --  As some of you may remember, I wrote an article earlier this year entitled "Maintenance Attitude." In that article, I described how infusing a simple concept and rallying point into our daily routine positively affected everything from our daily statistics to troop morale.

Thus far in 2006, both our assigned weapon systems, the KC-10A and the C-17A, have managed to produce numerous command leading statistics.

Perhaps the most impressive accomplishment of our maintenance group is the fact that we are one of three finalists competing for the coveted Daedalian maintenance award, the first time in McGuire's maintenance history. I share this update with you because in order to reach our highest potential we all need to believe in something, and a good place to start is with ourselves, our units, God and Country! "It's a Maintenance Attitude."

Now that we're up to speed on the "Maintenance Attitude," let's move on to a new concept, LEAN. Many of our troops are trying to figure out what LEAN is and how they can get involved. In this article, I will explain, in the simplest of terms, what LEAN means to me and provide a couple of examples that we have either completed or currently have in the works.

Let's start with the official definition from "The American Heritage Dictionary:" lean -- "not fleshy or fat; thin, severely curtailed or reduced." Although not exactly the words I would use, they do cover one of the points I would like to make. LEAN, to me, is simply reducing and/or eliminating the non-value added steps in a process or task in order to decrease the time it takes to complete the task. LEAN is also determining how to keep the troops at the production site by removing any and all distracters and road blocks that hamper their ability to get the job done. Sounds complicated, but if you read on, you will see it's rather simple.

A project we recently completed with our aircraft tire change trailers is one example of this process at work. Originally, our technicians would have to drive approximately a quarter mile to pick up the trailer and tow it to the aircraft requiring the tire change. Once the tire change was complete, the technician towed the trailer approximately three quarters of a mile to our supply warehouse and swapped the defective tire/tires for serviceable assets. After the trailer was restocked with serviceable tires, they would travel the same distance to return the tire trailer back to our ready line until it was needed again.

Instituting LEAN, we moved the tire trailer outside the entry control point of the flight line and coordinated with our Boeing supply partners to replenish the trailer at the storage location. This eliminated more than two miles of towing at five miles an hour and the 30 minutes to one hour we spent swapping out the worn tires on the trailer. When you consider the fact we change an average of 10 tires a week, 52 weeks a year, you can see there is a tremendous amount of time saved. We kept troops on the flight line doing what they do best; generating mission capable aircraft.

Another initiative recently implemented by our Maintenance Group, is another LEAN example. They combined their KC-10 A-Check and C-17 Home Station Check inspection teams into one unit qualified to accomplish both inspections.

This LEAN initiative dealt primarily with combining already available manpower from two separate workforces. This combination allowed us to effectively use available manpower.

Prior to the consolidation, one team would not have a scheduled inspection thus wasting valuable time and resources. By combining this work force, we trimmed a full day off the completion time for each individual inspection, giving us a substantial savings in man-hours.

One of the most important points to remember about LEAN is our young Airmen are in the best position to recognize where wasted/non-value added steps are present and make the best recommendations for eliminating them.

A LEAN initiative could be as simple as rearranging a production line, permanently placing tools required to complete a job at the production site, or eliminating redundant tasks that no longer make sense or have out-lived their usefulness. We have numerous LEAN initiatives ongoing in MXG.

With PBD 720 manpower cuts pending and more on the way, I challenge each of you to look within your work centers and identify ways to reduce waste and eliminate all non-value added steps in your processes. LEAN out the fat, and increase the velocity of your mission.