By Gary Rice

Come up with a better way to perform aircraft maintenance.

That was the Navy’s edict for its weapons systems platforms, that’s what the Integrated Maintenance Concept (IMC) was designed to achieve, and that’s just what NADEP Cherry Point’s H-1 IMC Team has done. In fact, their success has been recognized recently with four prestigious awards. Two of the awards went to the team as a whole, and two were personal awards for H-1 IMC Manager Scott Nast.

The team received the NAVAIR Commander’s Award for Business Strategy Achievement in 2001 and the Admiral Arthur award as top logistics team of the year. Nast, who worked as the engineer overseeing depot level maintenance at Corpus Christi, Texas, prior to Cherry Point, was selected as NAVAIR Logistician of the Year and was also awarded the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Medal for his work with IMC.

“These awards show that as a team, we’re very committed to excellence, and we strive to achieve excellence,” Nast said. “We’ve set a lot of benchmarks in the way we developed and implemented IMC, and it’s awesome to be recognized for a job well done.”

Integrated maintenance is a new approach to aircraft maintenance that ensures the right maintenance is done at the right place and the right time. It provides for a set of depot level tasks and collects and analyzes data about those maintenance tasks. By reducing costs and improving operational readiness, it is intended to replace Standard Depot Level Maintenance (SDLM) and Aircraft Service Period Adjustment (ASPA) programs.

Nast explained that ASPA, which provides for the analysis of aircraft condition in the fleet, does not work effectively due to the impact of budget pressures, operational commitments, and scheduling. Over the years, SDLM became a restorative overhaul, and aircraft were brought in every 8.1 years on average. Maintenance costs grew because aircraft material condition degraded between SDLM events. Under IMC, material condition is not allowed to degrade because aircraft come to the depot every 26 months on fixed induction dates. Material condition stays at nominal.

“We wanted to catch defects before they became huge and costly,” Nast said. “IMC is more of a preventive rather than restorative maintenance that uses Reliability Centered Maintenance analysis to guide its future inspections and taskings. Because it’s a preventive approach, over time discrepancies should be less serious and reduce in number. The aircraft actually spends less time in the depot, turnaround time is faster, and the fleet gets more flight time out of its aircraft. And if it takes less time in maintenance, the cost is less.”

According to Nast, IMC has been well received in the fleet community. NADEP’s fleet customers have been very pleased with the program, because it makes things easier for them. In these days of rising costs and manpower cutbacks, that is important.

“We’ve built a real strong H-1 IMC Team, and it’s a worldwide team that incorporates all four depot sites,” Nast said. “The sites work together to compile and share information and make the program work. The fact that the sites are pulling together to act cohesively as one team is a really cool thing.”

Photo Caption: NADEP Cherry Point H-1 IMC Manager Scott Nast stands in front of an AH-1W Cobra helicopter in Hangar 1665 at the depot. (Photo by Gary Rice)