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C-5 PDM earns award

  • Published
  • By Damian Housman
  • Warner Robins Air Logistics Center Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  In a year of accolades and prizes, the C-5 Programmed Depot Maintenance team has earned one more. The Air Force has recognized the outstanding work of the C-5 PDM Process Improvement Team with the 2006 Chief of Staff Team Excellence Award, presented last week by Gen. Michael Moseley at the Omni Hotel in Washington D.C. This comes after a year in which Robins received four prestigious Shingo prizes and the Franz Edelman Award, testament to industrial excellence by its maintenance people.

"The increased tempo of operations in the war on terrorism means our strategic airlift assets are in greater demand by the warfighter, said Leigh Thompson, 559th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron deputy director. "We had to find a way to get C-5s back in the war, and we have."

Ms. Thompson said that the team has improved its processes through lean initiatives and implementation of critical chain project management, increasing the capacity to do unprogrammed C-5 work.

"CCPM is focused on critical chain buffering, pipelining, and buffer management," said scheduling supervisor Gail Turner. "It's a new management process that helps managers focus on schedule and cost instead of managing at the lowest level."

"We were having problems with damaged wire during removal and installation of the heat exchanger," said aircraft electrician Calvin Williams. "We moved some of the wiring out of the way, and used a protective cover for other wires to prevent damage during the repair process."

Another area of improvement was repair of floor boards. The team had to identify the parts of the floor boards that were delaying completion of the process.

"Floor boards were taking a lot of time. We were able to reduce floor board defects and cut flow days," said sheet metal work leader Darrell Harman. "We are just trying to get the aircraft out to the warfighter as soon as possible. That's the bottom line. Awards are nice, but we want better, faster ways to do things. The team has one vision, and that is to support the warfighter," he said.

According to Col. Robert Hopkins, 559th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron commander, the Chief of Staff Team Excellence Award reflects not only the efforts of the C-5 production people, but the entire team including the 402nd Maintenance Wing, C-5 System Program Office, Team Robins, and the Warner Robins community.