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545th PMXS stands up new TF33 shop

  • Published
  • By Ron Mullan
  • 72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE --  The 545th Propulsion Maintenance Squadron's TF33 Jet Engine Intermediate Maintenance shop achieved full operational capability status Oct. 10. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held in Bldg. 3705 to mark the event.
   Doing the honors were Lt. Gen. Kevin J. Sullivan, deputy chief of Staff for Logistics, Installations and Mission Support, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C., and Brig. Gen. Judy Fedder, 76th Maintenance Wing commander.
   According to General Fedder, "this marks a shift of engine workload from field units to the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, enabling the warfighter to focus more on their expeditionary capabilities and mission."
   With the closure of field back shops at Barksdale and Minot Air Force Bases, Tinker has the only TF33 JEIM shop in the Air Force.
   "The Air Force is closing 38 field intermediate or I-level maintenance shops and moving the workload to five or seven Centralized Intermediate Repair Facilities or CIRFs including Tinker," said Bobbi LaRue, 545th PMXS director.
   The TF33 is the first engine workload to be centralized. By October 2008, the I-level workload for the F101 engine which powers the B-1 Lancer bomber, the F100 and F110-100 engines which powers both the F-15 Eagle and the F-16 Falcon will be transferred to Tinker. The consolidation is part the Repair Enterprise for the 21st Century, a concept the Air Force is implementing, said Rod Lane, 545th PMXS program manager for RE-21. 
   "PBD-720 reduced the overall manning of the Air Force and some of those manning cuts were taken in field maintenance."
   When the transfer of workload for all four engines is completed, Tinker will be doing both I-level and depot-level work which means a significant increase in workload.
   "We do approximately 320 to 350 full up depot motors today, said Ms. LaRue. "On top of that we will see a minimum of 650 JEIM motors across all four types of engines."
   Flexibility is crucial to successfully balancing the number of workers and the amount of work space needed to handle the workload.
   "We deliberately built a flexible work force, both blue suit and civilian, and flexible work bays," said Ms. LaRue. "That way, if I have a lot of F100s generate and F110s are down, I can switch the bays, and it's the same with the F101s and TF33s."
   As the number of engines requiring I-level maintenance increases, the need for qualified workers to meet the demand will also increase. Currently, all maintenance workers are organic Air Force employees, but Ms. LaRue said future plans call for off base hires.
   "The majority of these new hires will come from experienced personnel. There is a large pool of experienced candidates available and that's who we want to hire," Said Ms. LaRue. "We are concentrating on skilled certified JEIM military retirees already trained in these workloads to come in and augment the blue suit force that we have and stand it up."
   Once the core team has been established, opportunities for Vo-Tech graduates will open up.
   "We do have a plan in place to work the Vo-Techs down the road to bring in additional personnel if required," said April Walker, 545th PMXS RE-21 program manager.
   By October 2009, full operational capability on all four engines should be achieved.
   "Achieving full operational capability is an important step in enhancing our ability to provide timely warfighter support," said Col. Brian Tri, 76th Propulsion Maintenance Group commander. "The team developed a well thought out strategy, executed the plan and achieved FOC on-time posturing the center for future JEIM workload."