Fleet Readiness Center Southeast

To celebrate this unprecedented accomplishment, FRCSE held a short ceremony last month in Hangar 101 to mark the occasion and to recognize the more than 300 personnel who were involved in reaching this significant milestone.

FRCSE Commanding Officer Capt. Tim Matthews addressed the Pacesetters at the ceremony. Matthews talked about the early days of the CBR+ Program and the struggles the facility encountered in meeting its goals for production. He then spoke of the vast improvement in turn-around-time (TAT) that led to "Sweet 16." "This team is made up of people from many trades throughout the facility who pulled together to accomplish this goal of completing 16 aircraft by the end of fiscal year '07. We have reached our goal and I salute you," he stated.

Rear Adm. Michael Hardee, commander, Fleet Readiness Centers, was not able to attend the ceremony but sent a letter to Matthews congratulating the team on its accomplishment. He said, "You have lots to celebrate and should be very proud of the role you play in generating combat readiness for our warfighters. The return of "Sweet 16" to VFA-87 this week is a milestone accomplishment for FRCSE. Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on reaching this critical milestone. Thank you and bravo zulu for fixing it once, fixing it right and fixing it on time!"

Fleet Readiness Center Southeast Commanding Officer Capt. Tim Matthews addresses the audience at the 'Sweet 16' ceremony last month.

The F/A-18 Hornet, an all-weather aircraft and the nation's first strike fighter, is the U.S. Navy's premier fighter/attack aircraft. In its fighter mode, the F/A-18 is used primarily as a fighter escort and for fleet air defense. In its attack mode it is used for force projection, interdiction and close and deep air support. FRCSE currently repairs and modifies the F/A-18 C and D models.

Early in 2003, Vice Adm. Walter Massenburg, commander, Naval Air Systems Command, challenged all depot level facilities to improve reliability and reduce TAT. Little did the workforce know they would be challenged so soon. Later in 2003, what was then the Naval Air Depot, accepted the workload of replacing the F/A-18 center barrels. Also in 2003, the facility received its first fixture and inducted one aircraft for the center barrel replacement.

The center barrel is arguably the most critical part of the aircraft. That is where the fore and aft fuselage sections, wings and landing gear all connect. It also is the part that takes on the brunt of arrested landings aboard aircraft carriers. When the F/A-18 was built, the prime contractor, McDonnell Douglas, designed the center barrel to last 6,000 flight hours. As the aircraft approached those hours, the airframe had held up well. The Navy didn't want to retire the F/A-18 so the solution was to replace the center barrel.

During the pre-strip cell, artisans prepare the aircraft for a cabin pressurization check.

Since the advent of Lean/Six Sigma, FRCSE has been doing things differently. The facility has "Leaned" out the process of everything they do. This includes aircraft maintenance. Lean thinking is summarized in five principles: precisely specify value by specific product, identify the value stream for each product, make value flow without interruptions, let the customer pull value from the producer, and pursue perfection. Simply put, trim the fat.

To improve the schedule and cost execution, the team also utilized a management technique known as the "Four Disciplines of Execution" (4D).

The F/A-18 line is the first "Greenfield" project at FRCSE. Greenfield is a new design or production facility where best-practice, lean methods can be put in place from the outset. FRCSE personnel set up cells throughout the hangar to incorporate the Lean concept into the CBR+ change.

Cell No. 1 is pre-strip. It is here that the aircraft is prepared for the strip hangar, where they will strip the paint from the aircraft and then preserve the bare metal with a primer coat. In pre-strip the artisans remove the engines, electronics, tail hook, launchers, guns, de-arm the fire bottles, and perform a cabin pressure check. Then it's on to cell No. 2.

The F/A-18 after the radome, horizontal stabilizer, wings and leading edge extensions have been removed. Next, artisans will prepare the aircraft for landing gear removal.

In cell No. 2, which is post-strip, the artisans remove the horizontal stabilizer, radome, wings, landing gear, fuel cell plumbing, and leading edge extensions.

Cell No. 3 is the pre-fixture cell. In this cell they spot the aircraft and level the bucks (jack stands), set-up for and perform optical laser alignment, and remove some skins and engine nacelles.

Cell No. 4 is the fixture cell and where the artisans perform the center barrel change. There are three of these cells in the hangar. This is where they actually split the aircraft. The forward fuselage is removed from the center barrel and the center barrel is removed from the aft fuselage. The installation of the new center barrel is performed in reverse order. This process sounds quick and easy, but it is not. The details are too many to list for this article, but just to give you an example of how tedious the work is to perform, each of the 4,000 holes the artisans drill and ream must be inspected and measured by the facility's quality assurance team.

Cell No. 5A is the post fixture cell. This is where they prime the inaccessible areas and install the nacelles and some of the skins, among other tasks. In cell No. 5B the artisans install longerons, more skins, and hardware.

The new center barrel has been installed and the artisans will prime and paint inaccessible areas, re-install the engine nacelles and some panels and skins.

Cell No. 6 is an assembly cell. Here they install more panels and hydraulic lines and perform leak checks. Again, this is just a summary. There is much more work performed in this cell.

Finally, the aircraft is moved to cell No. 7, the operations cell. This is where they install the engines, landing gear and landing gear doors, seats, and the canopy. They also perform a fuel system leak check and an arresting gear check, and rig the throttles and flight controls. This is the last stop the aircraft makes in the F/A-18 hangar. From here it goes to flight check.

In flight check, the artisans perform many more systems and operations checks before turning the aircraft over to the test pilot.

The test pilot takes the aircraft up for a rigorous flight test. It is the test pilot's job to push the aircraft to its limits while noting any discrepancies. Once the discrepancies are corrected the aircraft is off to the paint hangar before being flown back to the squadron.

To keep things moving smoothly, the cells all have to "pulse" or move the aircraft at the same time. With the exception of cell No. 4, the fixture cell, which pulses every 45 days, the cells pulse every 15 days.

FRCSE wasn't always able to meet schedule. As with every new project, they went through growing pains. But as time went on and they learned to lean out the process, FRCSE was able to meet its goal of completing 16 center barrel change aircraft. "Sweet 16" is just the beginning of more good things to come. The facility is on the verge of decreasing the pulse time to 13 days which gets the aircraft back to the warfighter in less time and enables our military to continue its pursuit of the war on terror. FRCSE is relentless in its pursuit of constant improvement and perfection. Some people say perfection is impossible. But the pursuit of perfection is always a step in the right direction.

The F/A-18 CBR+ Project has been a particularly complex challenge for FRCSE. As with any new project, there was a steep learning curve, from both a technical and logistics perspective. The success of the project is directly attributable to the diligence, determination and innovation of the artisans on the shop floor and those who support them. With the Lean and 4D "Airspeed" tools, the F/A-18 team has proven they can reduce variability in the process and deliver on-time and on-cost.