Innovate or Bust: egress gets a makeover

  • Published
  • By By Airman 1st Class Erin R. Babis
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  "I'm about to break your egress shop, sir. Is that okay?"

Master Sgt. Kenneth Kelly, 48th Component Maintenance Squadron accessories flight superintendent, admitted it was nerve-racking asking Maj. Mark Gray, 48th CMS commander, about implementing innovative, yet radical, changes to maximize the efficiency of their shop during an Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century, or AFSO21, event.

"I think everybody is a little leery of change," said Staff Sgt. Joseph Samples, 48th CMS aircrew egress systems craftsman. "For as long as I've been in the Air Force, which is just over 10 years, we have done everything the same. So when you propose a new idea to an entire section, it throws up some flags."

To Kelly's relief, Gray fully supported the decisions and ideas the team of Airmen came up with. The 48th CMS event targeted the 36-month inspection of egress systems, the emergency escape system that is relied on if a fighter pilot has to eject.

"Seats were taking up to 11 days to get done, which was crazy," said Senior Airman Eric Moseley, 48th CMS egress journeyman. "People were stressing out and catching discrepancies with our seats far into the process of fixing them. So we would have to go reverse that, fix them, and then come back to where we were before."

The idea of changing the way they did things was met with mixed feelings. Some were excited, while others were hesitant to change the way things had been done for years. The search for a solution started with a visit to Royal Air Force Marham in Norfolk, where they had recently streamlined their egress systems. The 48th CMS sent a team of representatives to get ideas on how to innovate their processes.

"I was a part of the discussion group with the guys that came back and told us what they saw at RAF Marham," said Tech. Sgt. Matthew Pernie, 48th CMS aircrew egress systems assistant section chief. "We decided to have our own AFSO21 event."

From there, a week-long event, facilitated by Master Sgt. Forrest McCracken, 48th Fighter Wing director of AFSO21, was held with subject matter experts from each section in the shop as well as quality assessment personnel, and as many NCOs and Airmen as would fit in the room, Kelly explained.

"I ensured that the team was moving in the right direction, following the eight-step problem solving process," McCracken said. "It's very important that you don't make a quick decision on a change before considering the outcome and the knock-on effects of that change."

The classic image of any AFSO21 event is that of a wall covered from one end to the other with butcher paper and sticky notes, detailing every step of every part of the process.

"It took this entire wall, but we laid out every single thing that happens during a 36-month inspection," Pernie said. "We wanted to see where we could cut down our wait times and weed out wasted time."

Kelly realized they would need to get some of the changes done on the weekend. Coming in on the weekend was in no way mandatory, but he would be there and anyone that had time to come in was appreciated.

"Every single Airman came, with the exception of two that already had travel plans," Kelly said. "We did feed them hamburgers and hotdogs, but the turnout was amazing. That was the big moment for me. I was like, 'Wow. They are all in. They all want it.' As a section chief, that's what you want. You want all your guys to be on the same drum beat, and they were."

Everyone bought into the new plan and was able to take ownership of the process, which helped with motivation.

"This was a ground-up innovation," Kelly said. "It's not me saying, 'We are going to fix this or we are going to do this.' It was, 'Hey, we've got a problem. How do we fix it at the Airman level?' It's their process, I just helped."

The changes in the shop are obvious the moment you walk in. There is a clear flow of three stations on each side - a red side and a blue side.

"One of the innovative things they did to get there is they took all their tools out of the toolboxes and put them right on the desk," explained McCracken. "Traditionally, in maintenance, you have all your tools locked away in the toolbox."

Tools are readily available by being displayed on the desks, so a quick assessment of what is there and what isn't can be done in less than a minute. Checklists are displayed at each station, ensuring no step is missed, Pernie explained.

"We wanted to produce a solid product every time on a consistent basis," Kelly said. "We aimed at 39 hours. So far, we're averaging 22 hours."

The specific goal was 13 hours at each station and a better pass rate with quality assessments. The egress shop has surpassed all their goals, attaining a 100 percent pass rate on all the chairs that have gone through the new system. They've reduced the average amount of time spent on each chair by days, and eliminated more than 500 excess tools.

"Since they've seen the changes and how everything has progressed, you'll notice a lot of the guys will speak up when something doesn't seem to work," Moseley said. "People have started to continuously question if what we are doing is the right way, the most effective way, or the best way to do something. It's a rolling process."

The changes have not only improved the quality and consistency of the product, but also the training process and morale.

"I'm so proud of them," Gray said. "Individuals got excited and, as a team, tackled a problem. They are a stronger team because of it. I had the luxury of sitting back and watching it, which is not the way it usually happens."

With the support of their leadership, the Airmen of the egress shop identified a problem, established a plan to solve it, and set goals. The effectiveness of their process was proven when a fighter pilot personally thanked them for the egress system that saved his life when he had to eject from his jet on Oct. 8 during a training mission.

"I think it strengthened us as a shop," Pernie said. "It got everybody on the same page. They knew what we were trying to accomplish and everyone wanted to be a part of it."