By Mike Barton

Machinists awarded for saving big bucks

William “Will” Barnes has a way of looking at things that is different from the average Joe. His friend, Forrest Allen, does too. When a worn or damaged helicopter part is put in front of them, they just don’t see a hunk of metal with lines and curves and holes drilled into it. They look past the problems to see a solution much the same way that an artist sees light and color and shadow on a model’s face.
And when they see solutions, they save the Naval Air Systems Command money. Lots of it.
Last year, Allen and Barnes used that talent to net the highest Beneficial Suggestion Program award for the year, making them NAVAIR’s first-ever Suggesters of the Year. Their contribution to cost-wise readiness here at the depot netted them a shared prize of nearly $21,000. Their suggestion is expected to save the depot more than $3.5 million in material costs during the first year alone.
Prior to their suggestion, millions of dollars worth of parts from the CH-46 helicopter had to be scrapped each year due to corrosion found in bolt holes of the aircraft’s transmission casings. To prevent such unnecessary waste, the two devised a relatively simple and inexpensive way to remove the corrosion, thus saving the expensive parts for reuse.
Allen and Barnes have several things in common. They are both locals — Allen from Newport and Barnes from New Bern. Both have spent most of their lives after high school working here, with a total of 50 years between them at the depot. And at the time of their suggestion submission both men were machinists in the Power Plant Machine Shop in building 133. (Barnes is now an examiner and evaluator for the depot machine shops.)
One look around the machine shop and you can see that a day in the life of a machinist is rarely routine. Although there are standard repairs that must be done on a regular basis, it is the nonstandard problems that find their way to his workbench that challenge his creativity. And like any artisan who creates or repairs things with his hands, he must carry a number of special traits in his tool belt. He must be observant and intuitive. When he looks at a part that has been brought in for repair, he must have the ability to mentally see that part back where it belongs — on the aircraft, perhaps — so that he can understand what needs to be done. From that mental picture, he will design and physically build a solution. Typically, he must be able to show his solution to
the appropriate engineer to get approval to
incorporate his solution into the regular repair system.
Allen says that it boils down to whether you think you can eliminate some processes or standardize them to save time. “We’re just trying to make our job easier,” he admits.
In the process of making their jobs easier, Allen and Barnes are making changes that are incorporated into the NAVAIR rework manual. These changes save time and money when they become part of the standard repair process.
This wasn’t the first or last time that either machinist had submitted a beneficial suggestion and received an award. But, according to Marilyn Boyd, the depot’s Beneficial Suggestion Program manager, this was probably the largest award ever made here. Boyd also believes that Allen and Barnes are typical submitters, people who have hands-on jobs. Often, after a suggestion is made, people will look at it and think – why hasn’t somebody thought of this before? That’s hindsight for you. But Allen and Barnes and many of their co-submitters seem to share that special ability to see solutions when nobody else is even looking. You’ve seen the cartoons where someone gets an idea and a lightbulb pops on over his head. Well, these guys take the lightbulb and make it better; a true thinking-outside-of-the-box kind of thing.
In the last four years, suggestions here have produced nearly $23 million in estimated first-year savings – so far. More than a quarter of the suggestions are still being processed. Take that number and consider how much money could be saved over the life of a suggestion and the possibility is staggering. As to the awards during that four-year period, suggestion submitters have taken home more than $368,000. Add to that the time saved in turning aircraft around for the fleet and the program has a benefit for everyone.
That’s the big picture. But at ground level, employees like Allen and Barnes see it in a much more humble light. Just ask Barnes – he says that they are two employees who just happen to share a common motto: “Yeah, we can fix that.”

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Cutline: William Barnes (left) and Forrest Allen were NAVAIR’s 2003 Suggesters of the Year in the Beneficial Suggestion Program. (Photo by Mike Barton)