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Saving AF money the OC-ALC way

  • Published
  • By Kimberly Woodruff
  • Staff Writer
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Three of the maintenance groups in the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex are finding ways to improve their processes to save money.

The Propulsion, Commodities and Aircraft Maintenance Groups have all used the AFSC Leadership model to facilitate common goals to create an environment of success.

Propulsion Maintenance Group
The 76th Propulsion Maintenance Group has successfully focused on direct material savings in an effort to improve the cost effectiveness of their operation. Since fiscal 2014, the PMXG has saved more than $3.6 million.

Scott Whitmore, a parts re-worker, discovered that a bumper bracket from the F-100 core was being thrown out with each inspection because there wasn't a technical order for a repair on the part.

The brackets cost $540 each. Teaming with engineers to work on a technical order, Mr. Whitmore discovered that a $7 clinch nut is the only part of the bracket that needs to be replaced.

"I came from a smaller company that had profit sharing and our motto was to try to fix it before throwing it away," said Mr. Whitmore, who had been in business aviation for 10 years before coming to work at Tinker. "That's the mentality I still have, and the guys in the shop have changed their mindset."

Col. Steve Petters, 76th PMXG commander, said Mr. Whitmore "took a simple bracket and fought to give us repair capacity," saving the Air Force more than $77,000 annually.

"I couldn't be prouder of Scott and the hundreds of other engine mechanics who are taking a whole new look at how we do business -- adding a cost effective readiness perspective," Colonel Petters said, adding that the group has 200 similar efforts ongoing. "This way of thinking is what helped us lower what we charge our warfighter customers over the last two years ... an Air Force first."

Mr. Whitmore said it's great that there are incentives out there for people, if they choose to take advantage of the opportunities.

"We look at everything -- we have a great group with years of experience and they see if there is any way to fix it somehow," he said Mr. Whitmore.

Commodities Maintenance Group
The 76th Commodities Maintenance Group is identifying direct material cost savings is by systematically reviewing the bill of materials (BOM) for a portion of its 2,200 different end items. She added, as a result of these BOM reviews, the 76th CMXG has identified $10.4 million in savings for fiscal 2015 to date.

"This effort also results in more accurate end item sales prices for their customers," said Col. Leigh Method, 76th CMXG commander. "In keeping with the group's strategic priorities of Smarter Information and Standard Processes, other efforts are in work to examine kitting procedures and an engineering reuse versus replace analysis."

According to Brian Overstreet, 552nd Commodities Maintenance Squadron Planning Lead, the planning group developed a checklist to assist them as they cleaned up their BOMs. This helped them to identify needed revisions, such as wrong units per assembly, ensuring validation with tech data. 

Ultimately, the change that yielded the best results was making sure each end item BOM, in G005M (Depot Maintenance Material Support System), had the correct production analysis quantity and high/low usage set. These two things are the basis for the formula that G005M uses to calculate replacement factors on each component part. It directly identifies the time frame of data sampling and frequency of the updates, which ultimately produces a more accurate end item sales price.

"We're working on standardizing guidelines to be smarter about pricing strategies," said Brian Lawson, Resource Division Chief for 76th CMXG.

Mr. Lawson said planners are spending more time with the bills of material to scrub them. "We now have the data, awareness and culture," he said. "Then when things don't go as planned, we don't have to spend so much time figuring out why."

Shauna Taylor, 76th CMXG Financial Analyst, said the group is getting back to basics and cleaning up the BOM.

"CMXG has 2,200 production numbers to maintain accurately, and a cost savings realized in CMXG helps not only us but also AMXG, PMXG and ultimately the Airmen in the field. Direct material cost from the BOMs is a large portion of the end item sales price, and a reduction in this cost directly correlates to a smaller operating expense to the warfighter," she said.

Mr. Lawson added that the Defense Logistics Agency also partners with CMXG to see that parts are available when needed.

Aircraft Maintenance Group
The 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group began their direct material savings in October 2013 when it was clear that 58 percent of the fiscal 2013 budget was spent in the area of direct material.

The AMXG goal for FY14 was $32 million, and in May 2014, they achieved a savings of $85 million as a result of analyzing the bills of material and updating them to be complete and accurate.

Col. Gerald McCray, 76th AMXG commander, said the group's Direct Material Cost Effective initiative efforts are focused on meeting a "Road To" savings goal of $12 million for FY15. 

Clark Nail, Chief of Strategic Planning and Alignment, said previous years' production data calls seemed to stop at the planners with limited mechanic input. In order to get input from the mechanics who work on the tasks every day, the "Walk the Floor" approach was developed.

Gathering ideas from all areas of production including mechanics, planners, first line supervisors, delegated engineering authority representatives, business operations and engineers, "Walk the Floor" began last December and has proven to be a successful program.

"The 'Walk the Floor' process has created 23 direct material cost saving ideas, three of which are showing excellent cost savings and are in the process of  being validated," Colonel McCray said.

Travis Roye, KC-135 Planning supervisor, had an example project dealing with an aircraft in the post-dock gate. A cabin pressure controller that had failed pressure checks in the past was deemed 100 percent replaceable in post-dock by the system program office.

"We found that though many fail, not all of them do," Mr. Roye said of the part that costs $5,000. "Now we're working on a 20 percent replacement factor that would mean a huge savings."

Financial chief Gene Harris said many of the savings are seen as a result of the open dialog with the System Program Office.

"We all benefit and we can pass along the savings to the warfighter," he said.

Colonel McCray said there are a number of cross-functional area representatives involved in making this collaborative effort a success: Mechanics, SPO, delegated engineering authority, planners, first line supervisors, engineering and Business Operations.

"All of the team members are working on a common goal to reduce our direct material expenses to achieve cost effectiveness," the colonel said.