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Defense-Aerospace

(Source: US Air Force; issued March 26, 2007)

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --- The Air Force will soon benefit from an A-10 Thunderbolt II milestone achieved here in March. Personnel from the 571st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron completed a precision engagement modification on an A-10 14 days ahead of schedule.

The modification gives the A-10 precision weapons capability through significant rewiring and the addition of modern avionics upgrades. The A-10C precision engagement program was accelerated by 18 months to meet the needs of the warfighter, causing the program to undergo concurrent fielding and development.

\"We're delivering airplanes to Air Combat Command, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units, while we're still finishing the development and design of the modification,\" said Greg Hoffman, the 571st AMXS director.

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If it Flys, shoot it

I can hear it now, if Hill is anything like Robins...."Lean was instrumental in reducing the number of days it took to complete the Precision engagement upgrades"

Everything here is because of lean, not because they guys work their a** off....

But, the important part is the aircraft was completed ahead of schedule...was it delivered back to the owning unit early? I know we complete ACFT ahead of schedule all the time then it sits on the ramp....gotta love wordplay!

(sorry...in a bad mood today...love dealing with my "fellow" idiot civil service employees [:D])

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I don't see the need to rush them ahead of schedule, seeing some of the problems that are still being ironed out...

--Raven

Well...if it's anything like the acft we finish at Robins ahead of schedule, normally home station finds more defects than they would have...I know from doing customer relations at my old job that most units don't really like their jets back early or late...mainly because of scheduling and fleet management issues....they have things planned out and when one is late or early it creates a "hick-up" so to speak....

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True.....typically the units like to drop one off and pick one up on the same trip. Jets getting done early does nothing but gum up the works for the unit when they are planning flying schedules, phase time and monies around the jet to be dropped off. It looks good for the depot because it proves they can speed up the schedule. btw prkiii, those guys are seriously busting their asses,I'm NOT impressed with the lean program.

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Gravity's not just a good idea.......its the LAW!

I don't care for it much either...everything that is good they say is because of Lean....oh well, guess it's just one of those programs that is going to stick around for a while....

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I know those guys are busting their asses. PDM/SLEP/PE all at once has got to be a apin in the ass. And rolling them early can cause issues for the unit...but I was talking about issues related directly to PE. I have multiple orange pages in the front of my 781As right now listing flight restrictions for \"C-models\"

PE is going to mean great thinsg for the Hawg, but I think we should be ironing out some issues before rushing this mod out to the masses. Our PE jets have already had to go through multiple \"retros\" to fix previous problems. In larger unit that will gum up the works even more than getting a jet back two weeks early or late. Not a call to make at my level...but it is my two cents.

--Raven

Raven...you certainly nailed it on the head. Rushing these things out of Hill will cause ten times the errors found when the A/C land back at their home station.
Not to mention the new software pushes they are kicking out weekly to fix this or that error will only lead to more headaches at bases trying to keep pace with which load they should have on their jets.

As far as the \"LEAN\" process....isn't that just another regurgitated version of the General McPeak disaster \"Quality Air Force\" We all know how well that went over.

Toyota pushed Lean back in the 80s I believe...one of the reasons they are where they are now in the automotive market...what senior leadership forget is Depot is not manufacturing new products...it's overhaul, mod, and push out the door....but they think they can apply the same principles to Depot, the F-15s go through a type of assembly line here at Robins now....when I first hired on back in 99 it was more like a phase...we had a crew, worked a jet the entire time it was here, she would leave and we would work on the next one...yeah, they have cut down on the days it takes to push a jet through (C-5s went from almost 2 years to just over 100 days now) but the quality isn't always there...I will say this, without saying which airframes, a couple we work at Robins are WAY down...another is good for active duty but the guard is tearing them up....

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