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Tinker team accepts accolade for best DOD depot program

  • Published
  • By Micah Garbarino
  • Tinker Public Affairs
Senior leaders and employee representatives from Tinker have long maintained that they have the best workforce in the Department of Defense, and now they have the hardware to prove it.

A 27-person Tinker delegation -- comprised of senior leadership, suppliers, maintainers, planners, engineers and contractors -- was on hand Nov. 16, 2011, at the Omni Hotel in Ft. Worth, Texas, to accept the Robert T. Mason award for the KC-135 Programmed Depot Maintenace Team at the 2011 Secretary of Defense Maintenance Awards Banquet.

The Mason award is given to the best depot-level maintenance program in the Department of Defense. These programs range widely from upgrading microchips to overhauling entire aircraft carriers. In short -- it's a big deal.

On hand to present the award were Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Maintenance John B. Johns and former Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center commander, Lt. Gen. Loren Reno, Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Installations and Mission Support. The keynote speaker, and also a presenter, was Army Gen. Robert Cone, commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command.

"Tonight truly is a championship event, and it crowns this KC-135 team best in DOD. They are clearly the champs," said Maj. Gen. Bruce Litchfield, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center commander. "This was awarded for things they accomplished in 2010, but their 2011 was even better. They just keep getting better every year."

The foundation for the win was laid by 45 process-improvement events, causing KC-135 flow days to be reduced from 216 to 179 days and producing a record number of 55 aircraft in fiscal 2010 -- up from 48 in prior years.

Those changes did not come easy. They were the result of hard work by experienced maintainers and patience and trust on the part of management.

"A large organization cannot turn on a dime. In a lot of ways, it's like trying to turn the Titanic. You could make a change for the better, and it may take six months for the results to show up. But we have great leadership, and they stayed the course with us. Now we have aerospace industry companies coming to benchmark off of our processes," said David Piscitello, lead planner for the 564th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron's KC-135 team.

These improvements continue today. In fiscal 2011, the team increased production from 55 to 64 KC-135s. Of those, 61 were delivered ahead of schedule and three were delivered on time.

"With all the process improvements, we've only just begun. We're going to get a lot better," said Janis Wood, deputy director of the 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group.

For the team members who attended the event, the awards presentation was validation, but they didn't lose sight of the fact that they work for the warfighter and not for the award.

"Everyone's got to work for someone. We work for the warfighter. It's our job to figure out how to get them as many aircraft as they need," said Joseph Peters, supply lead for the 564th Aircraft maintenance squadron KC-135 team.

Mr. Peters' comments echoed two sentiments commonly expressed during the awards banquet. First, that ground, sea and air forces cannot function without the maintainers. Second, that the maintenance performed is not simply a job but a duty to the warfighters in the field who must count on their equipment.

The award came as little surprise to American Federation of Government Employees Local 916 president James Schmidt, who was glad that management and members of the workforce were able to attend the event together.

"It improves morale. It's nice that they're taking the time out to congratulate people on what they've accomplished," Mr. Schmidt said. "I've traveled all over AFMC and told people we have the best maintainers in the Air Force. This is vindication of that. It makes me proud."