Complex closes out productive year with 217 aircraft

by Jenny Gordon
78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

10/27/2015 - ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- It has been a productive year at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex, more so than at any other time in the last five years.

A total of 217 aircraft -- C-5, C-17, C-130 and F-15 -- were produced in fiscal 2015, which ended Sept. 30. That number includes 15 unscheduled depot level maintenance aircraft, with two C-5s, three C-17s and 10 C-130s.

In the 402nd Commodities Maintenance Group, commodity lines produced 34,772 units in fiscal 2015, more than 600-plus units in addition to what was planned.

The 402nd Electronics Maintenance Group produced 84,600 units. That was 4,097 more assets than had been planned at the beginning of the year.

The 402nd Software Maintenance Group completed 326 projects, nearly 80 more than originally planned as well.

And the 402nd Maintenance Support Group kept the production plant healthy by conducting 19,975 preventive maintenance actions and driving $47 million in improvements.

The ongoing commitment of a skilled workforce of maintenance professionals and management teams contributed to the success of last fiscal year's numbers, ensuring that dedication will carry forward into 2016 and beyond.

"There was a lot of remarkable work across the board," said Brig. Gen. Walter Lindsley, WR-ALC commander. "This was accomplished through process improvements, teamwork, communication, synchronization and integration, focus and guts and commitment from our work force. It's a great story."

The 561st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron produced 73 F-15s. Since January 2014, when the squadron began to implement new process discipline, there have been significant gains. The squadron began fiscal 2015 with a zero due date performance. They finished the fiscal year at 35.6 percent DDP and rising.

No doubt it was a challenging year, but that was last year -- and the business of fixing and returning aircraft to the warfighter continues.

Overall, there were five C-5s produced in fiscal 2015, marking the fourth consecutive year the 559th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron has achieved 100 percent on-time DDP. That's no small feat when each aircraft spends about 265 days at Robins for programmed depot maintenance.

In the 562nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, there were 68 C-17s produced in fiscal 2015. That amounts to an 85 percent due date performance, which was nearly a 10 percent increase over the previous fiscal year. That squadron posted significant gains since last spring, getting nearly 48 jets back to the customer either on time or early.

There were 56 C-130s produced in 2015 by the 560th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. That total was achieved despite a deficit of 11 aircraft in the first quarter that were recovered, in addition to the squadron keeping up with the remaining year's production schedule. The squadron experienced an increase throughout the year with its DDP, and posted 39 percent for fiscal 2015.

On the overall WR-ALC production total, the complex was slated to produce 219 aircraft in fiscal 2015, but in the last few days of the year two C-130s were not produced. That, however, was due to weather and flight concerns during the last production phase.

With this being the most productive year Robins has experienced lately, Lindsley pointed out that it was accomplished with 1,000 fewer workers in the "direct workforce."  He described the complex workforce as an organization of professionals committed to each other and the mission.

At the end of the day, when all is said and done, the Art of the Possible vision at Robins has been defined -- to be the "best on the planet" at what we do.

And achieving a successful level of performance comes from a commitment from every mission partner on base, as well as the support of families, businesses and organizations across the surrounding Middle Georgia communities, all of which directly contribute to that vision, said Lindsley.

"I don't believe we've achieved the best we can achieve. Not even close," he said. "We have a lot of opportunities to do great things this coming year. We have the team to do it if we stick together and communicate and execute at a high level. I'm putting my money on this team."