NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. – Two fleet readiness centers (FRC) and two FRC Mid-Atlantic Detachment Patuxent River (FRCMA DET PAX) Sailors were honored recently as the Naval Aviation (NAE) Excellence in Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) Award recipients.

Senior Chief Petty Officer Joshua Leard, a black belt and FRCMA DET PAX AIRSpeed officer, received the AIRSpeed Leadership Award which recognizes significant personal contributions and provided leadership to the maintenance and supply readiness of the Navy’s operating forces using CPI initiatives. From October 2015 to September 2016  Leard, an aviation structural mechanic, decreased FRCMA DET PAX’s green belt certification time, reduced transportation waste, created point-of-use work stations and implemented flow-based work center layouts. His accomplishments also include eliminating waste in the beyond the capability of maintenance (BCM) process.

Deputy Commander for Fleet Readiness Centers and Director of NAVAIR Logistics and Industrial Operations SES Martin Ahmad presented the awards.  Ahmad, who is also COMFRC’s AIRSpeed executive champion, said he was impressed with the ideas and the momentum coming from the deck plate.

“It’s really individuals like Senior Chief Petty Officer Leard and Petty Officer 2nd Class Wojtas that make CPI and other initiatives possible,” he said. “It’s the one person who recognizes the problems or inefficiencies and takes it upon themselves to gather a group of people to save, time money and energy.”

Petty Officer 2nd Class Aimee Wojtas, an aviation electrician’s mate who is currently the Metrology and Calibration coordinator at Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 22, received the Master Gunnery Sergeant John S. Evancho Innovator of the Year award for demonstrating innovative thinking, inspirational leadership and outstanding performance in the field of CPI.

Wojtas accomplishments included reducing the time to replenish the BRU-32 bomb ejector rack on supply shelves and eliminating 23 days from the command’s correspondence routing time.  She implemented new 5S standards (a Lean manufacturing philosophy that focuses on work place organization and standardization of processes to eliminate waste.  Its elements are shine, sort, standardize, straighten and sustain) and compliance that increased work center productivity by 25 percent. Now, FRCMA DET PAX has the capability to repair the H-60 Seahawk main landing gear (MLG) shock strut assembly, cost avoiding more than $100,000 for each assembly.

“After gathering all the data and then laying out the process step by step, we identified its overall cost savings opportunity and potential increase repair capabilities at our site,” she said.  “By project completion, we were able to achieve minimal repair capability at our site with no immediate [Individual Material Readiness List (IMRL)] acquisitions, reduce the customer’s BCM costs and prevent future impairment of mission capability to the fleet.”

FRC Southwest Detachment North Island’s (FRC DET NI) and FRC Southeast (FRCSE) both received the Site of the Year Award, which recognizes sites that excelled at fostering a culture of CPI through improving customer satisfaction, furthering the integration between maintenance and supply, applying AIRSpeed concepts, executing AIRSpeed enablers and deploying CPI sustainment initiatives. FRC DET NI’s AIRSpeed Team was named Level II Site of the Year for improving epoxy pours for the Airborne Low Frequency Sonar (ALFS) Reeling Cable re-termination process. The new process yields a 92 percent cable pass rate and eliminated 27 man-hours of rework. FRCSW DET NI also decreased the wait time for BRU-14 bomb racks by 70 percent by increasing training on the non-destructive inspection (NDI) preparation process.

FRCSE was selected as Level III Site of the Year for cost avoiding $17.5 million from November 2015 to October 2016 and more than 31,000 man-hours after incorporating CPI as part of its strategy to reduce turnaround times to meet customer requirements. Among its accomplishments, FRCSE realized a one-time cost avoidance of $2.8 million and a multi-year cost avoidance of more than $985,000 by improving its aircraft paint hangar temperature and humidity systems. It also developed a process to procure non-aeronautical material and provided training to its workforce, cost avoiding more than $182,000 a year and reducing man-hours by 3,800 a year.

Ahmad highlighted FRCSE’s increased production of F/A-18 Hornets as a result of implementing Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM), a methodology that enhances production throughput by providing a roadmap on the sequence of repair operations that occur on aircraft.  “What you have done embodies what this award is about,” he said.  “Once you implemented the methodologies and sustained those principles, the results were clear.  FRCE has a well-functioning production line.  You exceeded our expectations.”

NAVAIR Logistics and Industrial Operations Chief of Staff Capt. Timothy Pfannenstein, who emceed the event, said as the Navy moves from acquisition to sustainment, CPI will continue to play a role in aircraft production and will need forward-thinking Sailors such as Leard and Wojtas to develop innovative solutions to lead the Navy forward. 

“When AIRSpeed started it was just a building [at NAS Patuxent River],” he said.  “AIRSpeed has promulgated through the fleet so that it is self-sustaining now.  That speaks volumes about the quality of practitioners across the enterprise doing this work for the Navy.”