AFSO21 improves local parts process, identifies savings Published Jan. 4, 2013 By 20th Maintenance Group AFSO21 office 20th Maintenance Group AFSO21 office SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, SC -- Under the Air Force Smart Operations of the 21st century initiatives program, a team of Airmen from the 20th Logistics Readiness Squadron and Maintenance Group recently conducted a rapid improvement event to improve the aircraft parts and equipment local manufacture process. Furthermore, the team researched the administration process, or paperwork, to gather approval and materials necessary to manufacture parts and equipment. The purpose of the RIE was to streamline the process - and thus cut costs -- by decreasing local manufacture start-to-finish-time and cutting out excessive travel time from one organization to the next. Currently the process has 27 steps, many of which, users say, are repetitive and don't help. The team started the RIE by looking at the past and current local manufacture requests. They analyzed the data to determine the issues that were most negatively affecting the process. The root causes identified were: too many middlemen, too many stops, excessive transportation and paperwork not being electronic. Also examined were the routing of the local manufacture paperwork between the aircraft maintenance unit, the flight service center, then onward to the aircraft parts store, which they discovered accounted for 40 percent of the time consumed and 61 percent of distance traveled. To replace walking documents to these areas, the team instituted scanning and electronically sending the local manufacture paperwork to the flight service center, eliminating most of the travel. Result: A "leaner" future state of the process evolved with only the necessary steps incorporated. The process went from an average of 63 to 28 minutes per local manufacture request submitted. "Wow! I can't believe we were wasting so many man-hours. Changes are a must," said participant Staff Sgt. Nathaniel Lacy, 20th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron combat-oriented supply organization representative. Overall, the team eliminated nine unnecessary or redundant steps; and cut by half the movement time and distance traveled. Since adoption of the new format, 65 local manufacture aircraft parts and equipment have been made, already potentially saving 37.91 man-hours with a current cost avoidance of $1,896 and a projected annual savings of $5,686. "With the process, we have less of the middle man. It has allowed us to concentrate on researching materials to fabricate aircraft parts," said Master Sgt. Eamon McCracken, NCO in charge of aircraft structural maintenance. "Streamlining the local manufacture process enabled the performing work center to fabricate and deliver the product to the requesting work center in a timely manner, reducing the amount of time and distance needed to generate local manufacture letters of approval." "The changes that are filtering into the local manufacture process are providing motivation to continue striving for perfection," added Tech. Sgt. Warren Gabel, the maintenance group's AFSO21 manager. "This all starts with the simple acknowledgment that there must be a better way." Gabel urged people with ideas for maintenance improvements to call the 20th MXG AFSO21 office at 895-1037.