Westover RISO dock serves as Air Force proving ground Published Oct. 4, 2011 By 2nd Lt. Andre Bowser 439th Airlift Wing Public Affairs WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE, Mass. -- The job of maintaining the military's biggest jet just got bigger for this reserve base. Air Force leadership has designated Westover as the test site for adopting commercial aviation maintenance processes into the way the entire Air Force performs maintenance work. The C-5 isochronal inspections are performed at three main sites, including Dover Air Force Base, Del., and an Air National Guard installation in Martinsburg, W. Va. "Dover and Martinsburg are both slated to adopt the commercial aviation industry maintenance practices once all the kinks are worked out of it at Westover," said Kent Boll, the senior consultant for Integraph Government Solutions, the civilian firm tasked with helping the Air Force make the transition. Boll identified four major areas in which the Air Force will adopt long-standing commercial aviation maintenance practices that have helped that industry soar: · Increase and dedicate manpower · streamline policy and procedure · improve data Integrity · centralize work environment. Col. Kerry Kohler, 439th Maintenance Group commander, said Westover was chosen for the big job of improving the Air Force's C-5 maintenance process because of the base's track record for success. SMSgt. Karl Sweikhart, the superintendent and maintenance flight chief of the RISO dock, said his goal was to help maintainers understand that Westover was only tapped to test out the new processes because of the fine work they've done so far. "We've proven ourselves; we know where we stand; now we want to improve," SMSgt. Sweikhart said, listing the Maintenance Effectiveness Award, Knucklebuster Award and the base being named the best medium aircraft maintenance group in AFRC in 2010 among the many accomplishments. Boll said it was complimentary for such sweeping and historic change to first start at Westover, bringing antiquated military maintenance practices up to modern commercial aviation. Col. Kohler said the improvements are timely because the Air Force is on target to consolidate its isochronal inspection docks, including Westover assuming responsibility for C-5 minor inspections for the entire fleet, Dover Air Force Base taking full responsibility of C-5 major inspections, and Martinsburg heading up the maintenance process for all National Guard installations. Lt. Col. Luis Nunez, the 439th Maintenance Squadron Commander, described Westover's role in shepherding new maintenance practices as pivotal. "We're leading change--and it's for the whole Air Force," he said. Boll said Westover's work was vital to the smooth transition of the entire Air Force to better maintenance practices, especially in the face of increasingly fewer bases performing maintenance on the C-5. "It's a necessity that we effectively bridge commercial aviation best practices with the military maintenance process," he said. The change necessary in bringing the Air Force in line with commercial aviation's best practices has already received mixed reviews from military maintainers. Many complain that there are too many kinks in the process and that it's ill fitted for the job they do. Boll said the maintainers had a valid point. "I expected it, and it is to be expected," said the man credited with inventing the bridge between the commercial and military maintenance processes. "This is very normal at this juncture of the change process." Boll ran his hand through his head of white hair and said the process that started at the RISO on Sept. 16 would take time. The end result of implementing his four-point plan: improvement. INCREASING MANPOWER With fewer bases providing maintenance for the C-5, Boll said it was only logical that the Air-Force wide consolidation should beef up maintenance staffs at existing docks. "Manpower plays an important factor because you need more people to increase already high output," Boll said. He said Westover's high level of performance is what influenced Air Force leadership to choose it as the test site for a hybrid of commercial aviation industry and military maintenance best practices. STREAMLINING POLICY AND PROCEDURE Given the unique circumstances and maintenance environment of working in the RISO dock, Boll said changes to policy and procedure also had to be considered. "It's not effective to run dock operations under flight line rules," Boll said. He gave one example of the painstakingly controlled manner in which flight line mechanics sign out aircraft parts and tools. The measure is key on the flight line because a misplaced bolt or screw could cause millions of dollars in damage to an aircraft, but in the dock that safety measure should be adjusted. "Working in the isochronal dock is different, and if we speed up the way mechanics acquire their supplies and tools, we speed up the time it takes to send aircraft through the dock," Boll said. "Commercial aviation has long since divided those two maintenance tracks, but the military groups the two in the same category." IMPROVING DATA INTEGRITY Boll said one Air-Force wide problem identified by his firm was that military maintenance data does not meet acceptable commercial aviation standards. "Heavy maintenance work is a living process that requires continuity of data and tracking that process as the maintainers go," Boll said, describing the difficulty that military maintainers experience in splitting their time between paperwork and maintenance work. "It really requires a separate job tracking the tasks and presently it is up to the mechanics." Boll said the commercial aviation industry created a separate specialty for recording and tracking the many maintenance tasks; that allowed for more hands-on time for the mechanics and boosted their output. He plans the same for the Air Force. CENTRALIZING WORK ENVIRONMENT In a central location off the main worker entrance to the RISO dock, the new work control center occupies an old break room and acts as a hub for maintainers, supervisors and the newly added work control associates. "It's a very orchestrated event," Boll said, pointing to walls with job sheets stuck in slots under specific specialties. A large counter separates the maintainers from the supervisors and work control associates, and the paperwork process is essentially taken away from the maintainers so that they can focus on fixing the planes. Boll said the concept of the centralized work center helped bring the dozens of skill sets needed to maintain a C-5 under one unified roof. The four work control associates have already started helping to track the tasks of the 12 crews and more than 150 maintainers, including active duty, reserve and civilian workers. Newly-hired work control associate Rica Rendon, the wife of a Marine stationed at Westover, said her background was in the mortgage industry where she used similar data tracking skills. "I think this will make it easier for the mechanics so they can focus more on the aircraft," she said. Work control associate Nikki Dover was hired by Integraph and moved from Jacksonville, Fla., where she has been a reservist and loadmaster for more than three years. "It's extremely hard teaching old dogs new tricks and no one likes to change," Dover said about initial skepticism she's experienced. "But I'll use my Southern charm to be a mean person in a nice way."