By Frank Taormina, Public Affairs

Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) was presented the Rockwell Collins Performance Based Logistics (PBL) Award at a ceremony on February 3rd in the Avionics Building. Mark Bailey, program manager for Rockwell, presented the award to FRCSE Commanding Officer Captain Tim Matthews. The award is in recognition of “Excellent Performance and Superior Customer Service” during the five-year partnership between Rockwell Collins and FRCSE for F/A-18 Cockpit Displays.

Chris Kopp of the Business Office at FRCSE opened the ceremony, thanking everyone in attendance for coming before introducing Bailey. Bailey mentioned when the partnership started five years ago, there were 583 backordered cockpit displays and after only 15 months there were no back orders, thanks to the management team and the artisans at FRCSE. Bailey said, “After only 18 months of this partnership there was 100 percent availability for the cockpit displays. There was absolutely no hesitation from the Rockwell Collins team to re-new our partnership with FRCSE for the next five years, with an option for another five years after that.”

Captain Matthews, accepting the award on behalf of the command, stated, “This is a great example of government and industry joining forces to keep the Warfighter flying. It means more jets on the flight line and on aircraft carriers.” Matthews went on to say, “I wish all projects were this successful.”

Rockwell began its first “full blown” PBL partnership with FRCSE in 2004 and was recently awarded the “Secretary of Defense Award” for its outstanding performance of the PBL contract. This project became the “benchmark” PBL for Naval Inventory Control Point (NAVICP).

FRCSE originally agreed to a turn-around-time (TAT) of 30 days and has met that agreement with and average TAT of 24 days while being at or below cost. This partnership means $3 million and 30K direct labor hours annually to FRCSE.

A PBL is a partnership between public and private industry that provides support capability. This is a major shift in the traditional approach to product support, allowing true focus on Warfighter readiness and the execution of the mission. PBLs create a win-win-win situation. They are a win for industry because of business growth, a win for FRCSE because this is a successful example of supply chain management, and a win for the Warfighter because there is improved availability, improved time-on-wing, reduced backorders, and reduced cost of ownership. FRCSE currently has 11 active PBLs and five of them have won the Secretary of Defense PBL Award.

PHOTO CAPTION:
Capt. Matthews is presented a PBL award from Mark Bailey, program manager for Rockwell Collins. (Photo by Victor Pitts.)