DLA Aviation decreases wait time for Air Force maintenance operation

  • Published
  • By Catherine Hicks
  • DLA Aviation Public Affairs
RICHMOND, Va. --  Defense Logistics Agency Aviation's decision to move its Shop Service Center (SSC) in Ogden closer to the maintenance shop decreases customer wait time for the Air Force's 309th Aircraft Maintenance Group. The 309th supports the A-10 (Thunderbolt II) Squadron.

Starting April 4, DLA employees began moving more than 200 DLA parts and 65 Air Force parts from Hangar 1 to Building 225. Additionally, 1,000 DLA parts and 100 Air Force parts have been indentified for moving to Building 225 from warehouses located on the air base and within DLA Aviation.

Hollis Gulley, DLA Aviation's chief of the Aircraft Material Division in Ogden, said the idea and approval for the move came from Barbara Simbro, DLA Aviation's chief of supply in Ogden.

Gulley presented DLA's idea of moving the parts location and DLA's Point-of-Use System to Kevin Schow, weapon center support chief for the 571st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron which supports the 309th Group.

Schow is responsible for ensuring needed A-10 parts support, planning and scheduling incoming and outgoing aircraft after repair or modification, and material requirements.

He said from his standpoint the Air Force is always looking for ways to improve the process of getting parts in the mechanics hands sooner rather than later.

DLA's Point-of-Use System is a system allowing critical parts to be located on the shop floor for immediate use by the mechanics. It further reduces wait time for parts being issued because the parts are on the floor already and mechanics don't have to wait for issue from the SSC or the main warehouse.

"When Mr. Gulley presented DLA's idea of moving our parts location from Hangar 1 to Building 225 and going to a Point-of-Use System we were very skeptical of this being an improvement,' said Schow.

Gulley said in the old SSC location DLA was limited by space constraints to storing a little more than 200 parts.

"In the past, the majority of A-10 parts were stored outside the maintenance complex in the Defense Depot Hill Unit's warehouses and sometimes it took one-to-two days to deliver to the Hangar 1 Shop."

After several meetings between DLA Aviation, Tom Downs at DLA Distribution in New Cumberland, Penn. and Air Force team members, an agreement was made to move forward with the SSC relocation. Downs coordinated the delivery location change from Hangar 1 to Building 225.

Schow said agreement was reached to test the move and if parts weren't delivered to Air Force personnel sooner in all A-10 facilities, then deliveries would go back to the way they were being done.

"When the 571st and DLA agree that this change has improved our process, we will then discuss the point-of-use option," he said.

Simbro said DLA is able move forward and stock up to 1,000 different (national stock numbers) for the A-10 repair workload located in Building 225.

"Now, it will only take five minutes to deliver the parts to the Air Force mechanics," said Simbro. "Moving material forward to a SSC decreases time to deliver critical parts from days to minutes."