MXS's backline maintenance produces 'BIG' results

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace
  • 436th AW Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  The men and women of the 436th Maintenance Squadron, home to the Air Force's sole active-duty High Velocity Regionalized Isochronal Inspection dock, have been hard at work recently, driving down the turn-around times that all Active Duty, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve Air Force C-5s spend in ISO here.

The goal is simple, to meet or exceed the 14-day mark set by Air Mobility Command.

To meet that goal, the 436th MXS leadership stood up a dedicated backline team - a team responsible for the operational checkout portion of the ISO inspection. The team ensures components changed during the ISO inspection work properly once the ISO inspection is complete. Also, the backline team refuels the airplane, services the latrines and fills up the oxygen tanks.

Dover AFB has not had a dedicated backline team since HVRISO started in June 2007.
"Over the past eight months, we have been operating with one team of people in the ISO dock," said 1st Lt. Steven Donovan, 436th MXS Maintenance Flight commander.

Prior to June 2007, Dover AFB was only responsible for ISO inspection on their own fleet of C-5 aircraft. However, last year the Air Force selected the location for their sole regionalized facility. Following that, the base has received, on average, one jet every 10 days.

"We have been getting jets in back-to-back and non-stop since June," said Senior Master Sgt. Todd Shoemaker, 436th MXS, Maintenance Flight chief. "Even though jets were arriving at an extremely fast pace, we would have the same mechanics perform the incoming inspections and repairs of the aircraft in the hangar, also go out on the flighline and perform the outgoing operational inspections there. We were overextending our Airmen and not achieving the goals we had in mind - something had to change."

The task was too cumbersome for one team, agreed Lieutenant Donovan.

"The same team of mechanics that would work the ISO inspection was also responsible for working the ISO backline," said Lieutenant Donovan. "We did not have a standard team to work ISO inspection and a separate standard team to work backline operational checks."

As a result, the ISO dock was not meeting the standard set forth by AMC, said Lieutenant Donovan.

"This was the major cause driving our 18.8 day average to complete an ISO inspection," he explained.

With a meeting of the minds, 436th Maintenance Group leadership planned and executed the attack on turnaround time with their new dedicated backline program.

"Starting this year, we shifted manning to an existing 12-person home-station-check team resulting in a dedicated backline team of 24 crew chiefs and jet engine mechanics," said Sergeant Shoemaker. "This allows us to work one jet on the backline while simultaneously performing inspections on another jet in the ISO hangar without losing time off our critical path."

For his hard-working Airmen, the changes have been positive, explained Sergeant Shoemaker.

Since the dedicated backline team concept was implemented the crews of the 436th MXS ISO dock are turning jets, on average, in 14.5 days. At times, they've even surpassed the 14-day goal.

"We were crawling, now walking and will be running soon," said Sergeant Shoemaker. "We've improved internal and external support processes vital to achieving a 14-day ISO flow and are inspecting (double the) aircraft than in previous years. The work being completed by the 436th MXS Regional ISO is amazing and is paying huge dividends for our warfighters on the frontline."