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| Press Release Number: ENI200307072 | 07-Jul-03 |
AIRSPEED aims to reduce turnaround time |
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| AIRSPEED aims to reduce production TAT By Bill Bartkus NAVAIR Depot North Island CORONADO, Calif. - NAVAIR has embarked on a new initiative to bring proven cycle time reduction tools and methodologies to the depots. This effort is called AIRSPEED and was chartered by the Assistant Commander for NAVAIR Depots (AIR 6.0) Rear Adm. Wally Massenburg in April shortly after assuming his new position. The AIRSPEED Team is made up of individuals from each of the three depots and Headquarters and is working to develop a standardized "tool box" of cycle time reduction methodologies. These include Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma as well as locally developed cycle time improvement tools. The overall goal for AIRSPEED: decrease production turnaround time. "In an environment of limited Department of Defense funds, the Navy has employed several initiatives to lower operational costs in an attempt to free-up dollars for the recapitalization of our fleet," said Frank Widick, NAVAIR Depot North Island executive director of Program Management. "AIRSPEED is Adm. Massenburg's initiative to reduce turnaround time and costs by employing a set of modern business techniques." According to Widick, the "tools" contained in AIRSPEED use proven techniques that will assist in making the depots more productive and effective "thereby reducing the number of required depot pipeline assets resulting in a cost avoidance to the Navy." AIRSPEED kicked off at the Depot last month with the Landing Gear Components Shop. Teammates will be trained on Lean techniques that will be used to redesign the shop for greater efficiency. Widick said that the F/A-18 Test Line and Examination and Evaluation process will be next in line for training and conversion. "AIRSPEED is planned for deployment throughout the depot corporation over the next 30 months, and during this time it will be integrated with initiatives that are currently ongoing with organization and intermediate level fleet folks to create a totally integrated naval aviation maintenance enterprise," said Widick. Massenburg's vision for AIRSPEED is to incorporate the most current business and cycle time reduction processes across the NAVAIR enterprise to enable reduced cycle times to meet the requirements of the 21st century warfighter and beyond, according to NAVAIR Depot North Island Executive Officer Capt. Tim Trainer. Massenburg named Trainer as the lead for AIRSPEED. "AIRSPEED will enhance Depot responsiveness and flexibility; increase the velocity of our maintenance, repair and overhaul processes; eliminate waste and inefficiencies; and identify constraints and barriers for focused management attention," Trainer said. "It will also share, export and integrate AIRSPEED cycle time reduction processes across the Naval Aviation enterprise through the Naval Aviation Readiness Integrated Improvement Program (NAVRIIP)." Enterprise-wide integration will ensure the cycle time reduction efforts are concentrated on those products important to our fleet customers. Though Massenburg's overall goal for AIRSPEED is to reduce cycle times, Trainer said that there are other goals and benefits to achieve as well. These include a reduction to Work in Progress (WIP), increased throughput/velocity, improved quality and standardization, reduced operation costs, and improved scheduling accuracy and on-time delivery. "AIRSPEED will leverage Theory of Constraints, Lean, Six Sigma and internally developed management philosophies to dramatically improve Depot maintenance cycle time, reduce Depot pipeline, reduce waste, and increase enterprise wide supply chain velocity," said Trainer. According to the executive officer, Theory of Constraints views organizations as systems consisting of resources that are linked by the processes they perform. Inherent in such systems is variability in processes, suppliers, and customers. Within the system, a constraint is defined as any element that restricts the flow of that system. "Required performance is determined by customer defined value and constraint removal continues until the customer/warfighter requirement is met," Trainer said. Trainer said that the interdependencies and variability between and within processes are analogous to a chain. "Just as the chain is governed by the weakest link, Theory of Constraints maintains that the ability of the organization to achieve its goal is governed by a single (or very few) constraints. Theory of Constraints attacks these constraints in a prioritized fashion," Trainer emphasized. Lean Manufacturing involves the establishment of a customer defined value stream (what the customer is willing to pay for) then relentlessly pursues the elimination of all non-value added activities associated with that value stream. The essential ingredients in the Lean process are: (1) specify value; (2) identify the value stream and eliminate waste; (3) make value flow - ideally one piece at a time; (4) let the customer pull value through the process; and (5) pursue perfection. "Lean producers employ teams of multi-skilled workers at all levels of the organization and highly flexible, increasingly automated processes to produce volumes of products in potentially enormous variety," said Trainer. Six Sigma provides the data analysis to focus improvement activities on the activities that have the most significant effect on desired outcomes. Said Trainer, "Most companies do not have unlimited resources to remove all of the causes of variation at once; so the analysis focuses you on the right things first." Trainer said AIRSPEED goals are to be achieved through targeted use of Theory of Constraints methodology to proactively respond to scheduling variability inherent in the Depot overhaul and repair environment; targeted application of Lean principles for stripping out waste, reducing work in progress and driving continuous process improvement; and the use of Six Sigma statistical process techniques for defining, analyzing, improving and controlling process variation. Trainer noted that AIRSPEED will also serve as the vehicle for integrating the depots into the Naval Aviation Readiness Integrated Improvement Program (NAVRIIP). NAVRIIP is focused on improved non-deployed readiness and has been operating for several years. Expansion to include the depots will provide enterprise wide coordination across Naval Aviation from the operations, to organizational, intermediate, and depot maintenance and supply organizations. "Depot integration into NAVRIIP will be driven through integrated and linked metrics across Naval Aviation," Trainer explained. "NAVRIIP integration will provide direct customer linkage and support for improving supply chain management, optimizing organizational, intermediate and depot support, improving component reliability (time on wing). It will also provide a vehicle to the flag (admiral) and Senior Executive Service levels." He said that NAVAIR is doing all of this to improve its competitiveness while putting more material in the hands of the warfighter. "We are also focusing our production on what the warfighter needs to keep aircraft flying, reducing the cost of operation for the Naval Aviation enterprise, and producing the savings that are necessary for recapitalization. It is also an ideal BRAC strategy and demonstrates our world-class support to the warfighter." Trainer noted that AIRSPEED would produce faster, more efficient, high quality products for the fleet. "Velocity and quality are the goal. While depot inventories and work in progress (WIP) will reduce, workload should remain constant as we continue to produce those things the fleet requires in less time," said Trainer. "Less equipment in work means more items on the flight line thereby allowing a potential to reduce inventories. More importantly, it provides the opportunity for reducing future aircraft, engine and component procurements as equipment spends less time in the "system" and more time on the flight line. This makes us more competitive with industry with the prospect for additional workload. This effort is critical to our future viability." So what is the plan for NAVAIR Depot North Island? For the remainder of this fiscal year, the Depot will employ Lean techniques in the Landing Gear Shop, F/A-18 Test Line operations, and Examination and Evaluation process, and the C-2 Service Life Extension Program. "We will also deploy an "auto-crib" material handling system (automatic tool dispensers) within the F/A-18 Planned Maintenance Interval 1 line," said the captain, "and employ Theory of Constraints techniques on start up of the H-53 Integrated Maintenance Concept and C-2 SLEP lines." In fiscal year 04, which begins on Oct. 1, Trainer mentioned that the Depot will continue Lean deployment in Composites and the Hydraulics shop; the F/A-18 Disassembly, Assembly, Quickie, and Wing shops; the E-2 Super Modules and induction, and the Paint and Test Line. The Depot will continue Theory of Constraints deployment to F/A-18 PMI-2 line, E-2, H-60 and H-1 lines. Then, starting in fiscal year 05, "we will deploy Lean to Manufacturing, Calibration, and Dynamic, Avionics and Electrical components shops," Trainer said. "The Depot will also deploy Theory of Constraints to Voyage Repair Team, the LM 2500, Mobile Facilities, and Field Services." - 30 - |
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