IMPROVING RELIABILITY AND MAINTAINABILITY THROUGH PROCESS MANAGEMENT

A recent study by the Scientific Advisory Board found that the Air Force spends approximately $2 billion a year on simple structural aircraft parts. Responsibility and management of these parts (fasteners, actuators, connectors, tools and subsystems, or FACTS) is spread across the Air Force major commands and weapon systems. In order to improve the reliability and maintainability (R & M) of these parts, and decrease the amount of time needed to acquire and provide the parts to the aircraft maintainers, the Acquisition Logistics Division FACTS Office (ALD/FA) was founded. The FACTS Office acts as an advocate for maintainers by helping with the procurement of better parts. The office also attempts to change the systems by which the parts are acquired. By making permanent effective changes to the systems, the FACTS Office goal is to work itself out of a job. Several of the methods used to assist in this endeavor are summarized. The FACTS Office has established an internal process using project teams, a sophisticated computer hardware and software system, and management support to improve the R & M of simple aircraft parts. This management system, though still in its infancy, was developed around the Total Quality Management (TQM) concept of process improvement. The successful implementation of this approach should provide a significant improvement in the way the Air Force acquires and supports these items. Already several projects have been completed successfully with both tangible and intangible savings identified.