Lufthansa Technik Maintenance International uses buffer management to adjust priorities dynamically, based on actual execution, and to pinpoint areas where issue resolution is required. Realization also suggested they also adopt full kitting.
said. “Instead of playing whack-a-mole, clean the whole house across the board.” The FRC also uses “drum buffer rope.” Over the course of a weekend, the FRC
The first took 20 days and the second, 11.5 days, compared with as long as 23 days previously. All told, TAT decreased by 15 to 20 percent, mechanic utilization rose to about 45 percent and worker satisfaction improved. LTMI plans to fill up the pipeline and to apply full kitting to A-checks as well as C-checks.
Military Experience
Both the Cherry Point FRC and the Ogden ALC have gone through two turnarounds, illustrating the tendency of processes to deteriorate without a continuous focus on improvement. After the revamp of its H-1 and AV-8 lines—for which it won two Shingo awards—the Cherry Point facility noticed “a little tarnish on our shiny programs,” said John Gatt, FRC East industrial IPT director. “When you focus everyone on one line or another, you can have miraculous results, but at the expense of something else,” Gatt said. In their case, the component program had deteriorated and the rate the FRC charged was not competitive. Like Cherry Point, Ogden is on its second tour with critical chain. In 2007 there had been a CCPM implementation with “great results” in reduced WIP and flow days,” said David Mann, director of the 572nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at the Ogden ALC. The hitch was that new leadership rotated in with a focus on business financials rather than schedule adherence. As a result, WIP built up, throughput suffered and on-time delivery declined.
Cherry Point
Cherry Point pulled Realization in a second time to “drain the swamp all at once,” Gatt
reduced component WIP by 65 percent and aircraft WIP by 33 percent. On Friday there were 51 aircraft in process; but the following Monday 17 aircraft were roped off with big signs saying “commanding officer does not authorize any work” on them. Although the mechanics knew the change was coming, it was nevertheless scary, Gatt said. “People feel more comfortable surrounded by work.” But the move sped things up because the people who’d been working on the now- inactive aircraft were focusing on the priority aircraft. From FY 2010-2011 the facility reduced overclocking by 45,000 hours, Gatt said. (Overclocking is when the actual hours to complete a job exceed the hours bid on a job.) Hourly throughput increased by about 20 percent from October 2010 to October 2011. Gatt is projecting a $14/hour cut in the negotiated cost rate this year, from $127 to $113/hour. He plans to get down to $105/hour by 2014 and is “well ahead of the glide slope.”
The downside of the implementation was that initially on-time delivery fell from 34 to 22 percent. But it recovered later in 2011 and Gatt expected to get on-time deliveries above 50 percent by spring of 2012.
Ogden
When Mann arrived at Ogden ALC in the summer of 2009, his marching orders were to focus on aircraft throughput and let the financials take care of themselves. He first put some basic critical chain rules in place. Things were chaotic when he got there. Mann recalls a production manager who had enough resources to staff three airplanes efficiently but was working on seven. When asked why he was doing that, the manager replied, “I just can’t stand to see those other [airplanes] sit idle.” Mann “took away” four airplanes and left the manager three.
The situation also called for a strong
issue resolution program. Communications boards were put at the nose of every airplane so mechanics could tell managers what they needed to get the job done. Production meetings also take place right in front of the airplanes.
Mann described the issue resolution system in action. At one meeting a mechanic had written on the board that the aircraft needed a widget of some kind. “All my support people were with me at the walk-around. So I say, ‘everybody recognize we need this widget, right?’ They say, ‘yep,’ but nobody was working on it.” At that point Mann assigned the task to somebody in front of the staffer’s colleagues. That person “owns” the job until it’s resolved or a clean handoff made. So now that person feels “a little peer pressure to come through and keep the airplane moving,” he said. Before the system was devised, it could take two to three months to resolve an issue. Now it’s a lot faster, he said.
The changes got quick results. From August 2009 to September 2010 the facility was producing almost one extra aircraft per month, Mann said. On-time-delivery, however, took a 20 percent hit during this period because, although the pace had quickened, so many airplanes had been waiting for attention.
The next step was to bring in Concerto
software. The software is particularly helpful in synchronizing the work of shared resources like non-destructive inspection technicians, Mann said. Partly because of the software, on-time delivery climbed to 38 percent in Q1 of 2011, 56 percent at midyear and 85 percent by Q4. In fact, for the last three months of FY 2011 on-time delivery hit 100 percent. The freed-up capacity allowed the unit to take on $60 million in additional work through the Foreign Military Sales program. Nevertheless there are constraints somewhat beyond the ALC’s control. The supply chain, for example, depends on actions by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The Ogden ALC has identified 150 critical parts that would help keep things moving if DLA kept them in stock. DLA has made progress. It takes the agency about 25 rather than 100 days to find and commercially procure and deliver parts, Mann said. That’s still too long, however, so Ogden is working on better forecasting its needs in order to have items at hand when they’re needed. Ogden has learned from the past that its critical chain program needs to be self-sustaining. To this end, members of Mann’s chain of command—all the way up to his two-star general—have been trained and certified in the methodology. Any new managers are trained, as well. Upper management also has access to Concerto, so they can see where the constraints are and help to deal with them. AM
Aviation Maintenance |
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