Ogden Air Logistics Center Maintenance Directorate Business System Modernization

Challenges

Repair processes at the Landing Gear, Gas Turbine Engine, Wheels and Brakes, and Hydraulics shops at Hill AFB, Utah needed crucial improvement. A high Work in Progress (WIP) inventory and poor on-time delivery rates were preventing the shops from getting the landing gear repaired and back to the fleet when they were needed. The Landing Gear Shop ships over 1,000 complete landing gear sets, employs 450 people, and is the largest facility of its kind in the world. With no overarching Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) plan in place, depot workers had to reference as many as 300 legacy systems and hundreds of procedures just to do their jobs.

Solutions

DRC installed, integrated and provided operational support for a customized suite of commercial software products that has improved productivity at Hill AFB. Drawing upon its considerable expertise in logistics and systems integration, DRC assembled an MRO-specific, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software system composed of best-of-breed commercial packages for MRO tasks, and tailored it to Hill’s requirements. The system was used by everyone from senior management to shop floor mechanics. It monitored and systematized the repair process, provided immediate access to critical information and eliminated hours of paperwork. The system also captured information for processing future repairs more efficiently by tracking data such as how frequently a given part fails and needs to be replaced. DRC then added supply chain management capabilities to determine part availability and delivery.

Benefits/Achievements

Implementation of one of the first MRO-specific ERP system in the Air Force.
A total solution of methods, concepts, and tools specifically for the MRO environment that are based on Lean Management principles, theory of constraints, and throughput technology.
Supply Chain Management system that employed rapid prototyping; the Total Resource Utilization (TRU) methodology, a continuous improvement methodology based on the Kaizen philosophy; and Just in Time (JIT) inventory management processes.
50% reduction in work in progress or WIP; 75% reduction in cycle time; 85% increase in on-time delivery; and 400% increase in billable hours for the ALC.

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