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New status board benefits aircraft mechanics

  • Published
  • By Brandice J. Armstrong
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  It's time to get excited about transformation, and for a small group of aircraft mechanics, it's hard to deny their enthusiasm.

Inspection Dock personnel in the 564th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, previously walked by a dry erase board in their work area with various numbers and information displayed, and admit to never paying attention to it. But this enthusiastic group looked to improve this ignored board and develop a new "visual management" board which provides value-added information.

The group developed new boards for each aircraft which contain information like current cycle times and supervisors and support organizations' data that gives anyone walking by a glimpse at productivity in that work area.

Craig Smith, 564th AMXS I-Dock section chief, said he likened the board to a mall directory. After a quick glance at the board, mechanics, supervisors, aircraft logistics specialists, chiefs and support shops know how long a specific aircraft has been in the shop, what work has been done, the work that's scheduled for what day, and the likelihood that an aircraft will need work after the inspection.

Officials said, the key to the successful effort was asking the technician on the floor, "What do you need?" and allowing them to take the lead in developing the process improvement in their specific phase. And, now they have them.

Along with the new posted information, each board has a hanging red, yellow, or green flag indicating the overall status of the aircraft.

"We strive for green," said Rodney Radford, 564th AMXS I-Dock mechanic, standing next to a board with an exuberant grin. "When we used to come out here, the only thing we saw was the red number and the red flag. They asked us what we thought of the red flag and I said, 'We don't pay attention to it because when we come in here to the aircraft, we are going to do our job to the best of our ability and that red flag is like telling us we're not good enough.'"

But that's not the case anymore.

Coordination between the shops is imperative, and these new boards assist with this collaborative effort. When a KC-135 arrives at the inspection dock, it is scheduled to be there 17 days. During that time it will undergo more than 100 handoffs to other shops within the 76th Commodities Maintenance Group, 76th Propulsion Maintenance Group, 827th Aircraft Sustainment Group and the 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group.

"I think part of the conception of it came from trying to forecast our back-shop support and overtime for the weekend," said Wayne Falls, 564th AMXS aircraft supervisor. "We were trying to look at the picture down the road and what help we were going to need. So, having a visual aid allows the players to look at it and go, 'Yup, this is what we need.'"

Kenny Dunn, a lead facilitator in the 76th AMXG Transformation Office, agreed.

"It's not that we're changing the process any, we're identifying those handoffs so a manager and a scheduler can quickly discern one handoff to the next and reduce that waste time," he said. And the new board is a hit.

"The initial feeling you get out here it overwhelmed, because there's a lot of stuff going on," Mr. Smith said. "There are three jets, support shops and mechanics. It's kind of a crazy thing. To look at everything and keep everything in perspective helps out tremendously."