Improving Efficiency in Military Aircraft Maintenance Operations in Terms of Jobs Completion Time

Abstract

Extensive job completion time in the aircraft maintenance operations has resulted in countless extra man-hours and impacted thousands of military missions for decades. The main cause of this problem narrows down to the time spent in preparation to start a maintenance task. Current operations of an aircraft maintenance organization in Kadena Air Base, Japan, were evaluated in efforts to reduce the time to at least 50%. It was found that by implementing a software tool developed by a startup company, maintenance start times can be reduced up to a 60%, allowing aircraft to a mission ready status much quicker and giving back time to technicians for resiliency and proficiency training. Key Terms ⎯ Aircraft Maintenance Operations, Aircraft Tools & Equipment, Aviation Maintenance Process Improvement, Maintenance Task Management.