New EN director shares vision Published Oct. 17, 2014 By Kimberly Woodruff Staff Writer TINKER AIR FORCE BASE - Okla. -- Having started his career at Tinker, the new director of the Air Force Sustainment Center Engineering Directorate says it is like coming home. "The whole family is excited to be back," Kevin Stamey said. The timing is good for him to be at the Air Force Sustainment Center. Mr. Stamey said AFSC Commander Lt. Gen. Bruce Litchfield told him it was like being on the ground floor of a skyscraper with nothing but upward opportunity. "To be back when there is so much opportunity to make a difference is good for me," he said. Mr. Stamey said his vision for EN goes right along with General Litchfield's vision for the center. "Our priority for cost effective readiness is an opportunity for engineering to take advantage and make a difference," he said. "It is imperative for Air Force to find ways to reduce the cost of sustainment and it will take all of us together to improve so we can reinvest that savings in capability -- for the warfighter." He also said that "cost effective engineering has to be part of our core values. It should be a lens that we view things through and should drive us to continually look for ways to reduce the cost of sustainment." During his immersion tour of the complex, Mr. Stamey said he saw some great examples of cost effective engineering. In the Propulsion Maintenance group, they've cut down the time it takes to tape off certain areas on parts being painted with coatings. Sometimes the taping would take eight to nine hours on one part, but an engineer designed some rubber fittings that have cut the time from hours to minutes, and that is money saved, especially when there are hundreds of parts to be sprayed. The reality is the Air Force has legacy systems, Mr. Stamey said, so it is important to maintain those systems while making room for new ones, such as the KC-46, coming on board. He also saw cost effective engineering on the KC-135 production area where they have engineers on the shop floor. "The KC-135 is a model example of engineers on the floor making the judgment calls right there on the spot," said Mr. Stamey. "Engineers on the floor can see ways to do things better and in a more cost effective way. We have a lot of opportunities for good engineering and saving money." He said as the KC-135 is drawn down in the future to make room for the KC-46, "we need to model the KC-46 the same way. It works great." Standardizing the process Kevin Stamey, director of the Air Force Sustainment Center Engineering Directorate, said there is much work to be done with standardizing the process for requesting engineering assistance. "When there is something outside of the technical order requiring engineering support, we use a form called a 202. Over time that form has been automated by many organizations and we now have over 10 systems used to manage and track 202s. The Air Force is long overdue in consolidating these numerous systems," he said. In addition to the many 202 systems there are also similar systems for requesting engineering support from organizations outside of AFMC. Depending on where a person is working, there are different forms for requesting support. For example, a request from the field uses a form 107, and a request from DLA uses a form 339 for the same type of request, so standardizing the tool to one engineer technical assistance request will eliminate the cost of maintaining these many systems that do essentially the same thing. Not only will consolidation save money, there are several other benefits of having one system. "Once we automate the system for requests and everyone is using the same form, it will be possible to spot trends," said Mr. Stamey. Additionally, with one system, people who move from one shop to another won't have to learn new systems each time they move.