Air Force senior leaders to gather for maintenance review Published Feb. 26, 2010 By Brandice J. Armstrong Tinker Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- March 2 will be a big day at Tinker. Senior leaders from two major commands are scheduled to attend a day-long conference and discuss the game plans for the KC-135 programmed depot maintenance line and F108-engine. Lt. Gen. Janet C. Wolfenbarger, AFMC vice commander, will attend, along with Lt. Gen. Vern M. "Rusty" Findley II, AMC vice commander. "It's an opportunity to showcase our transformation efforts on the KC-135 PDM line," said Col. Robert Torick, 827th Aircraft Sustainment Group commander and event point-of-contact. "Transformation is alive and well at Tinker." Even though planning for the March conference began in January, interest in a conference sparked roughly a year ago. It was then, Colonel Torick said, Tinker leadership began studying the PDM line using process improvement tools such as value-stream mapping. The end result was Tinker leadership set objectives to decrease aircraft flow by at least 72 days and to decrease the number of in-work aircraft by seven by using other tools like rapid improvement events. Tinker's approach to bring together the entire enterprise to achieve the objectives caught the attention of AMC officials. "AMC wants to 'deep dive' into our operations," the colonel said, "to see how our work force has made so much progress. They are very interested in the recent improvements on the KC-135 PDM line and our plan to reach the Aircraft Availability Improvement Plan. Achieving a goal of 23 aircraft in the PDM line and 130 flow days per aircraft will go a long way to reaching our warfighter's availability requirements." The colonel said he has no doubt our work force can make it happen even though there are several factors to consider when working with the aging KC-135. Structural repairs and shortages in material affect the flow days. To curtail the issue, Tinker is working closely with the Defense Logistics Agency and the Air Force Global Logistics Support Center to ensure the work force has what is needed to meet the objectives. Senior leaders will also discuss the KC-135's engine, F108, and the plan to better achieve the War Readiness Engine requirements. "The visit is a great opportunity for Team Tinker to showcase the great work we do here for the warfighter," Colonel Torick said.