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Saving on cowling

  • Published
  • By Mike W. Ray
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  The side cowls repair shop in the 551st Commodities Maintenance Squadron has reduced significantly the time required to overhaul B-52 bomber engine cowlings.
According to Supervisor Craig Crenshaw, over the past seven years the average time required to repair the B-52's lower cowlings has been slashed by 35 percent, from 736 man-hours to 475. Similarly, the average repair time for an upper cowling has been trimmed by 26 percent, from 408 man-hours to about 300 hours now.

As a direct result, in May Mr. Crenshaw received the 76th Maintenance Wing's Maintenance Excellence Award for the shop's record of continuous process improvement.

The shop, in Bldg. 9001, has 37 employees who overhaul approximately 180 to 240 engine cowls per year, an average of 15 to 20 units per month, records reflect.
A key reason for their process improvements has been parts kitting and modular flow, Mr. Crenshaw said.

In "the old days," he said, each mechanic in the shop - and there were several dozen of them at the time - ordered whatever parts he or she needed to complete an overhaul. Today there is one person, Ben McDonald, who orders all parts for the shop and loads them into the mechanics' cabinets each workday.

Hardware and tools are managed in much the same way, Mr. Crenshaw said. Lockheed-Martin supplies all of the fasteners used in the shop, "so all the hardware is in a kit, too," and any specialized tools are housed in an "autocrib" that can be accessed with a CAC card.

Previously the Commodities Maintenance Squadron had to send cowls to a paint shop operated by the Aircraft Maintenance Group, but now CMMXS has its own paint shop in Bldg. 9001.

The biggest delays shop employees have encountered are a lack of parts, Mr. Crenshaw said; consequently, he said, contracts with overdue delivery dates, or one- to two-year completion dates, are common. When this occurs, a Nonconforming Technical Assistance Request, better known as an AFMC 202, is submitted to Engineering, requesting guidance or permission to perform "dash-3" field repair on that part. "Doing the repair can be more time-consuming and costly than actually replacing the part with a new one if the part were readily available," Mr. Crenshaw said.

The side cowl shop repairs B-52 bomber engine cowls, primarily, but assumed responsibility for E-3 Sentry AWACS engine cowls, too, earlier this year.

The shop has all the fixtures it needs for anchoring B-52 cowls while mechanics work on them, but two new fixtures had to be ordered for the E-3 engine cowlings, and those fixtures will have to be calibrated before mechanics can use them.

An H-model B-52 has 16 side cowls (two per engine), while an E-3 has eight side cowls, Mr. Crenshaw related. B-52s have left-hand and right-hand upper and lower cowlings, while the E-3s have only lefts and rights.

"Every so often, during slow periods," Mr. Crenshaw will take a handful of employees over to the B-52 hangar for a tour. "I want them to see one of those aircraft up close, because it's hard for them to imagine where a cowl fits onto the aircraft and why certain things are crucial in the overhaul process so parts mate correctly with other cowlings or the engine itself."

When a B-52 or an E-3 is designated for programmed depot maintenance, mechanics "take off whatever they are required to remove and inspect the cowling for damage," Mr. Crenshaw said. "If it's beyond dash-3 repairs, that's when it comes to us."

Of course, the extent of the damage affects the shop's production levels. Sometimes the skins have to be replaced because of cracks, corrosion, or excessive dents caused by weather or handling. Mechanics in the shop have to drill out rivets in the side cowlings to remove the skin; a B-52 side cowl has about 3,000 rivets, Mr. Crenshaw said.

At the same time that production in the shop has improved dramatically, safety has been emphasized. In mid-July the B-52 Side Cowl Shop received the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex Foreign Object Damage Prevention quarterly award. "I expect all tools to be returned where they belong, and every work station to be cleaned up at the end of the day," Mr. Crenshaw explained.

"The awards we have received, and the accomplishments this shop have made, would not have happened without the cooperation and hard work of the employees," Mr. Crenshaw said. "I have the best crew on base."