First maintenance ‘Innovator of the Month’ award

Published Aug. 30, 2013
By 1st Lt. Susan Harrington
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- According to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, every Airman is an innovator, and the aircraft structural maintenance Airmen from the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron here are no different.

These Airmen became the first to win the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Group's 'Innovator of the Month' award in July. The new award program is designed to not only highlight the improvements made around the base, but also to ensure those best practices are shared throughout the Air Force.

"The award is a way to recognize our Airmen," said Col. Bryan Harris, the 379th EMXG commander, a native of Marshall, Texas. "We want to recognize our folks who are doing things smarter and leaving them better than they found them."

Harris wanted to create a program to highlight his Airmen and the ideas they have each day to improve their operations.

Not only that, but he wanted a program that could feed into higher Air Force forms and programs like Air Force Technical Order 22, a form submitted to improve a technical order, and the Air Force Innovative Development through Employee Awareness program, which encourages creative thinking, and rewards both military and Department of Defense civilian personnel who save the Air Force time and money by giving them a percentage of the savings.

"We prime the pump for those other programs; we're not in competition with them, but want to help our folks be recognized," said Harris. "We have such bright Airmen and they have very good ideas, so we wanted a way to reward these guys and also get more people thinking."

This creative thinking was illustrated by the aircraft structural maintenance section, who through their teamwork and ingenuity, sliced hours off of their production turnaround time and were subsequently awarded the first 'Innovator of the Month' title.

One of the aircraft structural maintenance section's main job is the paint refurbishment of worn down aircraft wheels.

"Each wheel assembly that requires overhaul is stripped of paint and inspected by NDI [nondestructive inspection]," said Senior Master Sgt. Cornelius Plumber, the 379th EMXS fabrication flight chief deployed here from Joint Base Charleston, S.C., and a Compton, Calif., native. "After inspection, we repaint the wheel, and then send it back to Wheel and Tire where they rebuild the wheel and place a new tire on it."

In order to allow the wheel halves to properly fit together and prevent corrosion, the backsides and hub areas are not painted.

"We were all masking our wheels in the old style using masking tape for each side," said Senior Airman Kaleb Jones, an aircraft structural maintenance journeyman deployed from Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., and a Clinton, Md., native. "There had to be an easier way to do it, since it took about two hours each wheel set, and ate into our day."

Through some creative thinking, they developed wheel hangers from scrap metal for each type of aircraft wheel, allowing the two halves to hang together backside to backside as a wheel assembly while being painted, said Jones.

"Not only did the process save time, it set a standard for how our wheels came out, making them all uniform," Jones said. "It also affected a lot of people, not only us, but the wheel and tire shop as well since it cut down our wheel turnover by a day."

With this drastic cut in time and man power, the aircraft structural maintenance shop now can focus on doing their job and doing it well knowing they've made a difference.

"We're saving money, by us coming together, trimming off a little bit of time pulling a little bit of detail out of the process; we're able to be more efficient," said Senior Master Sgt. Marvin Howard, aircraft structural maintenance section chief deployed from Eielson AFB, Alaska, and hails from Riceville, Tenn.

"These ideas that we come up with for streamlining processes," Howard said. "It's not about the award it's about saving the man hours and the resources ... making the process as simple as possible to get the job done."

Streamlining Air Force processes and recognizing the Airmen using their creativity and ingenuity to do so is the ultimate goal the for the 379th EMXG's new award.

"My guys work hard, so it's awesome to be recognized for their idea that transfers in to mechanical technology," said Plumber. "Kudos for those guys and their hard work."

With this monthly award, the 379th EMXG is able to not only highlight their people, but also share best practices Air Force-wide.

"If anyone in the maintenance group has done something innovative or had an idea, we want to make sure they've got an opportunity to get recognized," Harris said.

[Editor's note: Members of the aircraft structural maintenance section awarded the 'Innovator of the Month' include: Senior Master Sgt. Marvin Howard, Tech. Sgt. Michael Abbot, Staff Sgt. Patrick Polcari, Senior Airman Kaleb Jones, Senior Airman Austin Tapp and Senior Airman Nathan Burner.]