Fleet Readiness Center Southwest's (FRCSW) H-60 Sea Hawk helicopter program earned the Chief of Naval Operations nomination to represent the Navy in the 2019 Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Robert T. Mason Award for Depot Maintenance Excellence. The announcement was made via naval message on May 29.
The FRCSW H-60 program in Building 325 applies the Integrated Maintenance Program (IMP) to assess and ensure the structural integrity of the MH-R and MH-S models of the H-60 airframe. Under the IMP, aircraft undergo a Planned Maintenance Interval-One (PMI-1) or 2 cycle.
During fiscal year (FY) 2018, the 147 members of the H-60 program completed 56 PMIs at a rate exceeding $4,200 below the workload standard total unit cost per aircraft. Further, the program marked an on-time delivery rate of 83 percent. Artisans completed PMI-1 and 2 actions while simultaneously completing more than 23,000 hours of in-service repairs (repairs outside of the IMP), and over 21,000 hours of modifications to nine aircraft for FY 18.
Program success may be attributed to the cell-based structure of the PMI and repair process. Each cell is dedicated to a specific function within the process that includes induction, disassembly, evaluation, repair, modification, assembly, test and final sell.
Using Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) methods, the teammates factored the time spent in each PMI cell and buffer to mitigate delays, and created a Hospital Spot for aircraft awaiting components or engineering analysis in FY18. The move resulted in a zero backlog of aircraft transitioning to the next cell, and improved on-time delivery by 10 percent in one year.
In addition to the depot-level Mason Award, the annual SECDEF Maintenance Awards also recognize six winners to the best of the best DOD field-level maintenance units within three DOD categories: large, medium and small. A SECDEF selection board will select the winners who will be honored in December during a ceremony scheduled in Spokane, Wash.