http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/1786 U.S. Air Force-industry-MIT research on applying lean principles to the maintenance, repair, and overhaul of defense aircraft 2013-05-19T06:46:42Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/725 Sustainment Operations Team Final Report Harris, Wesley Improvement of Mission Capable Rate (MCR) depends on factors such as transportation & logistics, resource loading & scheduling, and Available Parts & materials (AP&M). As shown in Figure 1, AP&M is a function of forecasting accuracy, which in turn, depends on the software, data, and vendor reliability data. Thus, to improve MCR, it is necessary to develop a clear understanding of the process for determining parts & materials requirements. This clear understanding of how to determine right amount of AP&M also means LSI stakeholders will have better risk management, better inventory management, better contract negotiation relationship, more efficient use of human capital, smoother production management and better supply chain management. Under ideal conditions, the right types of materials and parts would be available in the right quantities, at the right place, at the right time, and at affordable cost in order for the government and industry air force sustainment system to provide the required services efficiently, flexibly, and responsively under varying demand conditions. However, materials and parts shortages have led to a number of critical systems to have an unusually long Awaiting Parts (AWP) status during normal maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations. The situation has caused high cannibalization rates and long cycle times for MRO operations for some critical systems. In a few cases, the AWP problem has been documented to be a reason for poor mission capability rates on associated weapon systems. Given this critical situation, the Sustainment Operations Team was charged with researching the underlying causes to the AWP problem and the impact that this problem was having on government and commercial MRO production operations. 2001-10-01T04:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/723 Sustainment Measures for Fighter Jet Engines Lewis, Spencer; Harris, Wesley The US Air Force (USAF) has evolved a policy for the acquisition of fighter jet engines (FJE). In the 1970s and 1980s that policy placed a premium on FJE performance primarily measured by the metric: thrust/engine weight. In the 1990s, the USAF policy changed from an emphasis on performance to reduced life-cycle cost with a premium on sustainment. This paper reports the results of a study of how the USAF and Corporation Alpha (Alpha) have adapted their processes, practices, and policies to design, develop, manufacture, test, and sustain a family of FJEs. Each member of the family of FJEs is sequentially linked relative to insertion of technology designed to reduce sustainment costs. In addition to the technology linkages, the development of the family of FJEs selected for this case study is also tracked relative to US Department of Defense and USAF policy and industry design, build, and maintain processes, methods, and tools. This paper discerns the complex, highly integrated manner that characterizes the interaction between (1) technology, (2) policy, and (3) manufacturing and sustainment tools to produce a family of FJEs with improving sustainment qualities and non-degrading performance. The metric Unscheduled Engine Removals (UER) per 1000 Effective Flight Hours (UER/1000EFH) is used to compare the sustainability of each member of the selected family of FJEs. Our results are based on data obtained through a series of field interviews of USAF and civilian government personnel and Alpha personnel. The US government extensive database containing UER information is the primary source of MRO trends for the FJEs of this study. Our analysis shows that the family of FJEs sustainability, as measured by the UER metric, has not improved beyond 6 10 EFH for each succeeding generation in the selected FJE family. We conjecture that upstream policy, technology insertion, and manufacturing and sustainment tools are not the primary determinants of sustainability; the manner in which the FJE is used has the greatest influence on sustainability of FJEs. 2001-01-01T05:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/721 Sustainment of Capital Assets Harris, Wesley 2002-06-11T19:50:10Z