By Vicky Falcón
NAVAIR Public Affairs Office

For every aircraft or weapon system in the fleet, there is support equipment kept on hand for the soul purpose of fixing or repairing the system. This support equipment (SE) can include anything from a small wrench to an automated test bench and was the focus of a recent NAVAIR AIRSpeed Black Belt project that will save the Naval Aviation Enterprise more than $8 million in the next five years.

When a sailor needs to repair an aircraft or weapons system, he pulls up a technical publication to identify the SE required in performing the repair. He then checks to ensure the SE is on hand and ready for use.

Occasionally, a sailor might discover that the required SE is not on hand. When this occurs the sailor fills out an “Individual Material Readiness List” (IMRL) change request. This change request will then go forward to the Support Equipment Controlling Authority (SECA) where they will determine if that SE is authorized by the Support Equipment Management System (SEMS). SEMS tells them the “allowance,” or number of tools, the specific work site is allowed to possess. Discrepancies occur when the site is not authorized the specific support equipment required in making the repair or there is not enough quantity of support equipment to support the repair site – this is called under-allowancing. Additionally, these discrepancies can occur when a command develops a new repair capability or receives a new weapons system it must support.

Then again, the specific item under repair may not have any detailed SE allowanced for it at all, but instead the allowance of support equipment is written at a much higher level of assembly. In this case SEMS gives the sailor an allowance for many more tools than he needs for the specific repair – this is called over-allowancing.

“The problem was that in some cases, SE was not allowanced to specific weapons system components, such as a valve or an actuator on an aircraft,” said Martin Ahmad, an AIR-1.0 Black Belt who led the SERD into SEMS – First Pass Accuracy AIRSpeed project that began last March. “Instead, they have to allowance to the next higher assembly or whole weapon system.”

For a fleet SE manager, tailoring the SE quantity or processing a fleet-wide corrective action to modify an SE allowance issue (called a SODARR – Source Data Revision Request) is a maddening, time-consuming process.

“Out of 100 SE end-items computed by SEMS for a certain repair job, (i.e. - engine can/un-can) the sailor may only need 10,” explained Ahmad. “Conversely,” he continued, “under-allowancing of SE could result in the inability to meet fleet repair demands, and an additional fleet SE asset movement to offset shortages.”

“Our goal with this Black Belt project (which was sponsored by Capt. George Kilian and co-lead by William Fennimore – both of the Aviation Support Equipment Program Office PMA-260) was to eliminate allowance defects (over and under allowancing) and get the right type and quantity of SE to the activity and do it right the first time – first pass accuracy,” said Ahmad.

According to Ahmad, one of the first steps the team took was to verify through customer surveys that this was, indeed, an important issue from the fleet’s perspective. Next, the team used Lean Six Sigma tools to determine the statistically significant root causes of allowancing defects and then to develop improved methods and solutions.

“We started by brainstorming and found 20 potential variables that could be factors in allowancing defects,” said Ahmad. “Of those 20 variables, using the Lean Six Sigma statistical analysis tools, the team ultimately focused on two key factors.”

The first significant factor was the level of maintenance being performed – whether depot, O- or I-level maintenance. Work done within the squadron is considered Operational level (O-level) maintenance. If further repair is needed, the equipment goes to the Intermediate-level (I-level) or AIMD (Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department). The most complicated repairs are performed at the depots.

The team determined that the unique issues the depots faced and the alternative SE used at depots led to its increased numbers of allowancing defects.

The second key factor was the “list series” (the weapons system commodity type) of the equipment being repaired. Airframes and engines “list series” were found to be significant contributors to allowancing defects. The team discovered an inability to allowance below the engine “list series” level that led to an excessive amount of engine SE tailoring by site.

With these two factors in mind, the team developed improvements to the SE allowancing process by using Lean Six Sigma methods such as the “Five Why’s?” Solutions include restructuring the SEMS list series for airframes and engines SE to permit allowancing at a lower level – or in more detail. The team is also creating a special allowance for engine test cell repair sites.

“A lot of the things we’re doing involve training,” said Ahmad. “We’re also providing the worker standard operating procedures to help mistake-proof the SE allowancing process.

“The solutions developed by the team will reduce the allowancing defect rate by up to 67%,” said Ahmad, “Bringing the first pass accuracy SE allowance defect rate from 32% to 11%.”

Those same solutions will modify the SEMS allowancing algorithms to enable more accurate allowancing and provide the ability to allowance by geographic regions.

Improving the process, automating to eliminate a human quality assurance function, and the elimination of non-value added special allowances for operational test program set software should result in Type-I savings of $571 thousand in FY-06 to FY-11. Type II savings for that same timeframe are estimated at $7.9 million.

Savings in the category of Type I benefits have a direct and certain impact on the Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE) resources made available to the Navy for recapitalization. Type II savings are actually waste elimination where assets/resources are freed up to be reassigned to other value-added work and/or potential future savings. Type III savings are generally understood to be cost avoidances or savings that are non-quantifiable.

Ahmad says the team has planned a review in April to monitor the status of implementation of project solutions and to validate reductions in allowancing defects and the corresponding financial benefits. The final validation tollgate is planned for next August.

“Due to the high incidence of depot level SE allowance defects, many of the solutions currently being implemented in this project relate to depot activities,” said Ahmad. “However, it is recognized that allowancing defects at the organizational and intermediate maintenance levels have the potential to affect larger numbers of fleet sites. Therefore,” he continued, “a follow-on Kaizen event is planned this year to further address allowancing defects at the organizational and intermediate levels.”

“The success of this project is solely attributed to enthusiasm of the project sponsor and the dedication and expertise of the project team members,” said Ahmad. Key members of the team include William Davis (AIR-5.0D), Cameron “Dean” Hetzel (NAWC Lakehurst AIR-4.8), Jose Rivera (NAWC Lakehurst AIR-6.8), and Wanda Staton-Riggins (NAWC Lakehurst AIR-4.8).

For more information about NAVAIR AIRSpeed, go to http://www.navair.navy.mil/navairairspeed/.