The Manufacturing Plane Captains are Jeanne Tanida, John Limon, Susan Daggett, left to right, and Marilyn Wevley (not pictured).

John Limon, left, and Blue O’Bry look at a E-2/C-2 status report.

Loren Hammon identifies a template for an F-14 Tomcat as John Limon watches.

Jackie Sandifer, left, and Jeanne Tanida review a tension compression fitting for an F-14 Tomcat.

Susan Daggett, Arthur Carter, left, and Carlos Alarid examine a fitting for an E-2 Hawkeye.

Manufacturing: we make what you need

Story, photos by Bill Bartkus
NADEP North Island

The Industrial Manufacturing Branch in Building 472 has significantly changed the way it does business thereby further improving customer relations.
“In September of last year, we implemented a ‘Plane Captains’ program within Manufacturing. We assigned a production controller to each of the aircraft programs,” said Fred Jolly, Code 6.2.5.1. “Their sole function is to manage the parts manufactured in Building 472 on behalf of their assigned programs.”
Jolly said that the production controllers attend customer production meetings, take priorities and return to Manufacturing with a good sense of what the customers need. “Then they insure that the due date and priorities are met. This process has worked so well that we have implemented it among all customers,” said Jolly, who heads the Industrial Manufacturing Branch.
He said that it is difficult to get a hand on Manufacturing because numerous production runs are being worked on at the same time. He displayed a 26-page status report (some reports are as high as 40 pages, he said) that listed 375 different production runs going into shops. “This report shows me that we are making 375 different parts with varying quantities,” Jolly explained. “One production run may be 100 parts, another just one and maybe another needs five or 10. So the total number of parts may be 2,000, but 375 different production runs make up that 2,000.”
Each run is an independent of the other, Jolly stipulated. They are all going on their own route. Using his latest status report, Jolly mentioned that there are numerous places these parts could be any time, which becomes difficult to manage from a customer perspective. “Some of these are F/A-18 parts and some are E-2 parts. Some are parts for the FISC Focus Store that customers will draw from and some are for the Fleet if there is a downed F/A-18 or some squadron needs a S-3 part manufactured.
“We are the last line of defense, so to speak, for parts.” He explained that customers first look to see if the part is stocked on a shelf someplace. If the shelf is empty, then the command that needs the part will go to the original equipment manufacturer to see if the part is still manufactured. “After all avenues are exhausted and the customer can’t find the part anywhere, the command will turn to us. So, we are like the last line of defense,” Jolly said.
“We do the hard work, the complex work. We do the work that in many cases private industry doesn’t want to deal with because not many companies would stay in business very long if they had to make parts in quantities of one. The Depot isn’t here to make money, but to support the Fleet,” said Jolly.
When a customer requests a part, the work request goes to Planning to check and see if the Depot made this part before. “If they have, then Planning will pull up the material that is needed, the particular routing that the part needs and will note it on the paperwork,” Jolly said. “If the part is new, then Planning will look at what material is needed, how much stock must be ordered, and where the part will travel in order to produce a finished product.”
If the material is available, then Manufacturing will take the material, the blueprint and the routing and put it on the shop floor, and Production Control and the hub scheduler work it into the system.
Jolly said that under the former system, there were production controllers in both the sheet metal shop and in the machine shop, as well as in areas where the material was controlled – where the finished product went for out-processing and to be sold. “This was OK, but no one looked beyond their sphere of work, or their particular shop. We had due dates all along the way, but once the product left a particular area, that shop felt as though they completed their assigned portion of the job,” said Jolly. “They were done with their part even though the particular item itself wasn’t finished. They were done and moved on to the next item of business.
“They were doing their job, but no one was tracking it from beginning to end, from a customer perspective,” he said,
Jolly wasn’t satisfied with this method. “We just weren’t meeting our dates, and there was no incentive to improve. The answer was always, ‘I did my part. I did my little piece of it. Now it’s up to you to do your job.’ And it was the same all the way down the line.”
From his perspective, there was no one either accountable or responsible for this constant handoff of the part being manufactured. “No one was in charge of the process,” he stated.
So, Jolly decided that Manufacturing could not do business this way and he changed the process. “Even though Manufacturing is here as the last resort, and we are here to do the hard work and get it done, we still need to operate in the most efficient manner possible. We owe it to our customers to live up to their expectations.”
Under the new system, Jolly’s department keeps the customers in the loop, and they negotiate a timeframe together.
“We decided to assign Plane Captains to the various programs: E-2/C-2, F/A-18, S-3 and helicopters,” Jolly said. “It is that particular Plane Captain’s responsibility to manage the parts that are in Building 472 for that particular customer, and that person is also responsible for insuring that the part is processed at each stop in a timely manner,” said Jolly.
Some people told him that this is how parts were handled years ago. “That is probably where I got the idea,” he said. “So, we’re back to it now, and it’s a learning process for the people that are doing the job as well as the shops themselves.”
He has measured the Plane Captain program through customer feedback. He’s getting positive feedback from those who work in the Depot’s E-2/C-2 and F/A-18 programs.
“We’re always conscious of our customers’ needs, both internal and external , to be cost competitive,” said “JB” Thurmond Jr., Manufacturing’s deputy program manager. “This is always a constant, ongoing challenge for Manufacturing,” he said.
“We’re working smarter,” Jolly said. “We’re getting the parts that the customer needs when he needs them more so than managing the generic turnaround time.”
He said that the Plane Captains are responsible for attending the programs’ status meetings, and for taking the heat when Manufacturing doesn’t deliver on time. “But they also receive the kudos when Manufacturing does deliver the part on time,” he mentioned.
“The artisans are now working smarter, too. Because the program is filtering down to the shop floor on what is truly a priority,” Jolly said.
“Through the Plane Captain concept we can ask, ‘What does the customer absolutely need first and what items does the customer still need that isn’t a priority?’ We still have production controllers in the shop, but the Plane Captains can help prioritize the work in the shops.”
Said Jolly, “Artisans can perform some fantastic work when they know what needs to be done rather than just being handed some work. Without artisan involvement, the Plane Captain program would never have happened. Artisans are the professionals who will get the work done.”