MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition defines battle-axe as a broadax formerly used as a weapon of war.
Formerly ... pfft, how about now?
Work center 64C from the Avionics Division of the Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 12 captured the coveted MALS-12 AIRSpeed divisions’ time to reliably replenish battle-axe from work center 41A in a ceremony here July 24.
The competition was stiff as 42 other work centers were vying for the medieval mandible of death.
Once the numbers were ran, 64C was the clear victor with a 60-percent improvement, nearly double the nearest runner-up, in their time to reliably replenish.
The 42 work centers making up the MALS-12 maintenance division, all repair various parts of aircraft currently stationed here with Marine Aircraft Group 12.
“What that TRR really means to us ... we’re able to provide our products more quickly, more reliably and we also help supply do their job,” Chief Warrant Officer James McGeachy, AIRSpeed officer in charge, said. “It’s very important as a long-reaching impact and it ultimately helps MAG-12 do the mission that we’re all here to accomplish.”
In the world of production, a faster repair means decreasing the bottom-line.
“We have a software application called the Buffer Management Tool and we use that to help us identify how fast we’re repairing our gear,” Sgt. Tchaikawsky E. Samuels, AIRSpeed analyst, said. “The faster we can get it out the better because the cheaper it is for us.”
So, as Peter Gibbons might say, how does busting hump now benefit me at the end of the day?
Well first, battle-axe!
“Marines are warriors, we’re competitive in nature,” Gunnery Sgt. Shawn Runne, AIRSpeed staff noncommissioned officer-in-charge, said. “To see an axe and to have an axe within the division, representing the work center’s achievement of individually driving down TRR to accomplish their goal, says a lot.”
Second, saving money in the long run decreases workload in the future.
“If we can go ahead and reduce inventories, and reduce the amount of stuff we’re buying and contracting, then it’s less money we’re spending trying to keep inventories high to maintain the old and aging gear,” said Samuels. “That’s more money we can put into new platforms.”
New gear means improved gear.
“Because it’s new, it’s not going to break; it’s going to be more reliable,” said Samuels. “It’s an ongoing process of saving money and modernizing.”
The ongoing process of modernization is an initiative set forth by the Naval Aviation Enterprise to achieve cost-wise readiness. In past wars, the successful doctrine was to put up an iron curtain and have all the supplies needed behind the curtain, said Samuels.
As times change, so too must the approaches to fighting the modern war.
Fighting two wars and supporting operations in other parts of the globe makes putting all supplies in one basket more problematic, said Samuels.
Besides the long-term modernization goal to decrease the workload and better serve the fight, working harder can yield immediate relaxation benefits.
“Mainly it’s having pride and wanting to fix parts to get the workload down,” Sgt. Michael Uribe, an electronic counter-measures technician with 64C, said.
Having a lower workload allowed Uribe’s work center to focus on something more challenging and exciting, perfectly grilling a hamburger during their downtime barbeques, he said.
The 64C work center was fortunate to win because one of their work benches was down for some time, but the beauty of the TTR metric is the ability to track it over a period of months.
Even though the axe is on the line every month, the data used to determine the TRR of a particular work center is a mean of the previous three months.
Cheaters beware: to game this system is nearly impossible, and hard work, initially anyway, is critical for success.
Each work center repairs different parts. Some parts take one day to repair and others can take 50, but each shop is operating on its own TRR metric, so anyone can win.
Enter the battle-axe, a glorious symbol whose production mirrors the hard work necessary to win it.
The axe was produced using resources locally available to the AIRSpeed office, including Metal and Welds from the AirFrames Division and streamers made of tape, said Runne.
Alright, so this axe might not be an eviscerating death-dealer of old, but it’s the perfect tool of destruction against TRR.