Initiative aims to increase engines Published Oct. 16, 2009 By Brandice J. Armstrong Tinker Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- It worked. A Repair Network Integration initiative, born from a conceptual idea on improving the repair process for F101 engines, will soon be used in everyday business at four installations. The purpose of the RNI initiative, as part of the Expeditionary Logistics for the 21st Century campaign, is to increase the number of spare engines, or war-ready engines, so B-1s in the area of responsibility are not grounded due to engine issues. To effectively accomplish the fete, the four F101 repair installations must work together. Engines are fixed at Tinker; Dyess Air Force Base, Texas; Edwards AFB, Calif.; and Ellsworth AFB, S.D.; with the majority of work performed at Tinker and Dyess AFB. Prior to the RNI initiative, each installation followed their own practices and procedures as separate entities. "The thing that made this work so well is that everyone came to the table and everyone worked together," said Bobbi LaRue, repair network manager for the RNI initiative. "There was no bureaucracy. It was just we were going to do whatever it took together. It was all hands-on-deck." Master Sgt. Scott Shaw agreed. As an F101 Centralized Repair Facility flight chief for the 545th Propulsion Maintenance Squadron, he oversaw a component of engine production for the project. "It went from a vertical communication to horizontal communication with a snap of a finger," Sergeant Shaw said. "We had to. We had to talk everybody that had the capabilities." This past spring, Air Force Headquarters and Air Force Materiel Command Headquarters developed an idea to change the processes in which F101 engines, which power B-1 Lancers, are repaired. "It's a holistic enterprise approach to weapon systems' repair," Ms. LaRue said. "When they stood this up, what they really said was, 'Look at what you have across all those locations and balance the capacity capability that meets the overall production requirement.'" Before the RNI initiative could be tested, a real-world emergency occurred. In July, the number of spare, or war-ready engines, dropped to dangerously low numbers. There were only six engines available worldwide, as opposed to the 28 spare engines required to meet mission obligations. Spare engines are often needed daily and without an available spare, the entire aircraft is taken out of "mission capable status," Ms. LaRue said. Officials at the four installations jumped into action. They took inventory of their engines, support equipment and manpower. And, instead of having four locations trying to work individually of one another, they worked together to increase the number of available spare engines. Ms. LaRue said Tinker shipped two engines to Edwards AFB for repair, and two sets of rails, or engine stands which maintenance personnel use to repair engines, were shipped to Dyess AFB. Additionally, 17 Dyess AFB personnel came to Tinker, and daily phone calls were made between the four installations to allocate parts. "We basically micromanaged the entire fleet at a serial-number level," Ms. LaRue said. "We made those decisions every day with all of the flight chiefs from the unit on the phone together." By Sept. 24, 24 spare engines were available to the warfighter, up from the critical low of six, as a result of the RNI initiative. "We produced 57 engines in 60 days across the network," Ms. LaRue said. Currently, officials are testing the process to ensure it is viable across other platforms. When the test concludes in November, Ms. LaRue said Air Force officials will phase in RNI implementation as a permanent way of doing business.