NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. – Alignment and harmonization of efforts within the Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE) to better provide readiness were key themes in Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers (COMFRC) and Logistics and Industrial Operations, Naval Air Systems Command (Air-6.0) presentations at the Navy League Sea-Air-Space Exposition, held at National Harbor, Maryland, April 4.
That alignment starts at the top, Assistant Commander for Logistics and Industrial Operations Brig. Gen. Greg Masiello said. “The Commandant of the Marine Corps General Robert Neller and the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson are in total alignment when it comes to readiness for Naval Aviation,” he said. “They come at it from different backgrounds, different challenges and even different equipment, but they are aligned. My job is straightforward when both of the service chiefs, and my boss, Vice Admiral Paul Grosklags, Commander, Naval Air Systems Command have the same focus: Be competitive. Be strategic.”
In their messages to different audiences in different venues, each service chief recently called for the Navy and Marine Corps workforce—military, civilians and contractors alike—to be aggressive, forward thinking and decisive in their roles in producing required levels of readiness. Masiello said the challenge resonated with him. “We are asking ourselves, as an organization, if we are doing all we can for the warfighter,” he said. “I look out at our current reality and know that we’ve got a lot more work to do.”
Rear Adm. Mike Zarkowski, COMFRC, echoed his sentiments. “It’s not good enough to just do our jobs,” he said. “We must go from being reactive, where we address problems as they emerge, to proactive, where we manage known risks, to predictive, where we anticipate and preclude risks.”
NAE Sustainment Vision 2020 is an approach to get to that future, they said. It will transform Naval Aviation’s sustainment business model into a responsive, globally focused organization at an affordable cost by focusing on four “pillars”—Supply, Maintenance Planning, Manpower (and training) and Infrastructure (including support equipment and information technology.)
Maintenance modernization will be achieved by going digital, Masiello said. Air-6.0’s tools and initiatives, such as Additive Manufacturing, Vector (a system that aggregates information from 19 separate transactional sources into actionable data), Condition Based Maintenance Plus (CBM+) (an initiative that provides real-time data from sensors embedded in components) and the Predictive Analytics Model (PAM) (which provides a long-term forecast (up to 10 years) on the number of ready basic aircraft based on current plans and funding levels), are part of a core competency of data analytics that will change how information is processed and increase the speed of decision making across the enterprise, he said.
COMFRC, the execution arm of logistics and operations, works closely with Air-6.0. Zarkowski said getting to predictive requires standardization across all Fleet Readiness Centers and that Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) provides the disciplined, systems-view approach to maintenance and repair to achieve that goal. Currently, CCPM is the way business is conducted at FRC East and Southeast; FRC Southwest is in the last stages of CCPM implementation; FRC West and FRC Mid-Atlantic Norfolk have begun to incorporate the approach into its production lines.
“Standardization has realized gains to sustain and improve aviation readiness,” Zarkowski said. “We’ve had some early successes. FRC East reduced its work in progress on its aircraft line by 70 percent last year. Throughput on the F/A-18 A-D Hornet lines at FRC Southeast and Southwest increased by 40 percent from 2015 to 2016.”
“When we get depot throughput to our desired state, Naval Aviation [maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) activities] will be more predictive,” he said.
Standardization also applies to the workforce. “We are working to establish certification and training for all Sailors, Marines and artisans. Although technicians at the Marine Aviation Logistics squadrons are not under the COMFRC ‘umbrella,’ they are included in the effort as well. So, in the future, when you look across the enterprise, it won’t be about location, but what capability we have. The idea is to have military technicians with the same level of training as artisans so that in time, it doesn’t matter who does the work,” Zarkowski said.
Zarkowski also spoke on modernizing FRC facilities, the importance of partnering with industry and how Air-6.0 tools, such as Vector, enable MRO work. “We are moving from reactive to predictive with modern-day tools,” he said.
COMFRC and Air-6.0, however, are not the only organizations working to improve their contributions to readiness, he said. “COMFRC only has responsibility for one area – production. [Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support], Engineering and [Defense Logistics Agency] also have initiatives that have been successful. How do we ensure that those efforts are harmonized and prioritized across Naval Aviation?”
“Not one of the provider commands that I mentioned can do this alone,” Zarkowski said. “It will take all of us in Naval Aviation doing our part.”
Vision 2020, he said, is the plan that will modernize Naval Aviation’s 50-year-old sustainment system, harmonize readiness intitiatives and get aircraft back in the hands of the warfighter to produce proficient aircrew.
Masiello shared Zarkowski’s position on the imperative of Vision 2020. “We are not the only ones in the world with capability,” Masiello said. “Vision 2020 will better position Naval Aviation to keep its competitive edge.”