ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga: The first Air Force aircraft to undergo the new high velocity maintenance program arrived July 31 at Robins Air Force base.
High velocity maintenance is designed to shorten the time the aircraft is down for maintenance and inspections. The C-130 Hercules will be used to validate this new maintenance process.
The purpose of high velocity maintenance is to have everything the mechanics need to perform their work pre-positioned and ready for use, allowing them to stay at the aircraft instead of searching for the things they need to do the job.
The condition of the C-130 aircraft was known in advance, so the high velocity maintenance team members were able to schedule workflow, develop kits for each maintenance procedure that was required, establish requirements, order necessary parts, material and equipment and effectively streamline the entire process.
High velocity maintenance is the Air Force’s way of putting into play the best practices that are currently being used in the commercial airline industry, said Jerry Mobley, the high velocity maintenance team lead.
“Over the years our processes have not kept up with those in private industry,” Mr. Mobley said. “There was a lot of waste in our processes, so we looked at each task, the sequence they were performed in and looked at how we could do them more efficiently.”
The C-130 was selected as the first weapon system to undergo high velocity maintenance validation since it is in high demand around for operations around the world. Both Ogden Air Logistics Center in Utah and Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center in Oklahoma will be testing high velocity maintenance in the future on the F-22 Raptor and B-1B Lancer respectively.
