 The
Maintenance Center works all types of military ordnance,
motor transport, engineering, general purpose, electronic,
and communication equipment. This includes major end items
and various secondary depot repairable components.
In April 2001, the Maintenance Center was delinquent in
delivery on all product lines. Repair Cycle Time ( RCT )
was twice what was negotiated with the customer, costs far
exceeded budgets, there was high Work - In - Process levels
and the Maintenance Center was losing money on all product
lines. One product line alone lost US$ 12,000,000 in 2001.
The Maintenance Center needed to improve drastically and
immediately for three important reasons :
- First, the work of the Maintenance Center was vital for
national defense; delinquent work detracts from the combat
readiness of the Marine Corps
- Second, the Maintenance Center's military customers were
tending towards more and more outsourcing of work to the
private sector, where they could get better prices - meaning
steady job loss at Albany
- Third, there are periodic base closures in the U.S. military,
and inefficient facilities can be closed, with all workers
being displaced or becoming unemployed
After seeing a presentation on Critical Chain Project Management
(CCPM), the Maintenance Center decided to run a Critical
Chain pilot project on one of their product lines, the MK48
Logistics Vehicle of which there are approximately 1800 front
power units and 2200 rear body units in the Marine Corps
inventory.
Overhaul and repair is considered far more complex than
manufacturing due to high levels of uncertainty in repair
operations. In manufacturing, the company knows exactly which
steps to take to make a finished product. In overhaul and
repair, the nature and scope of work is not known until the
product is received, disassembled and inspected. The nature
and scope of work from vehicle to vehicle can vary greatly
depending upon each vehicle's condition. It is not known
which parts must be repaired, and which parts must be replaced
with new parts.
The uncertainty in demand for parts leads to high Work-In-Progress
levels, due to the perception that several units must be
disassembled in order to assemble one unit. This perception
is pervasive in the overhaul and repair world and is a major
obstacle to repair cycle time reduction.
By utilizing CCPM on the MK48 product line, cycle time was
reduced significantly, and costs began to come down. The
pilot project was deemed a success and it was decided to
put all products on CCPM.
At this time however, Vector Strategies, the consultant
on the pilot, persuaded the Maintenance Center that even
better results could be achieved by implementing Integrated
Enterprise Scheduling® (IES). IES is a methodology
developed by Vector Strategies that integrates and synchronizes
Critical Chain Project Management, Drum-Buffer-Rope Production
Management, and TOC Distribution & Replenishment Supply
Chain Management schedules and manages them as a single algorithm.
More than simply bolting - together the TOC solutions, IES
provides real-time synchronization and communication channels
between the schedules, and utilizes a unique form of Buffer
Management to insure that all products, at all points in
the internal supply chain, are to the highest possible degree
in the right place at the right time. IES requires less overall
buffer time than individual solutions bolted together, and
further reduces the repair cycle time for the Maintenance
Center.
Vector Strategies also integrated the IES solution with
the existing MRP II business system. Schedules and reports
are maintained in and drawn from the MRP II system. Only
the CCPM portion of the IES solution required additional
software. The Maintenance Center procured Realization Technologies'
Concerto software for this purpose.
In April of 2002, the Maintenance Center, with Vector Strategies
consulting, began implementation of IES plant-wide. The Maintenance
Center was very aggressive in tackling the implementation,
and it proceeded at maximum speed. The implementation was
complete by the end of June 2002, and it has been operating
by IES ever since.
IES has now been enthusiastically embraced by the entire
Maintenance Center. And since Vector Strategies completed
their involvement in June 2002, the Marines have maintained
the improvement and the implementation is proving to be
100% robust and sustainable.
- MK48 repair cycle time reduced from an average of 167
days to an average of 58 days
- LAV-25, reduced average repair cycle time from 212 days
to 119 days. All other products have shown similar reductions
- Cost to repair products has been reduced up to 25 – 30
% in real, inflation adjusted dollars, reflected mainly
in reduced overtime
- All product lines are now 100 % on-schedule to customer
requirements
- Repair cycle times have been reduced on average by more
than 50 %
- All product lines are now profitable, meaning that they
all complete within budgeted dollar amounts
- Savings realized by implementing IES has allowed the
Maintenance Center to self - finance a complete 5S program
and embark upon other lean initiatives
- The Albany Maintenance Center has become a showcase of
world-class overhaul and repair performance; tours are
conducted every week hosting officers and executives from
government and private overhaul and repair operations
- The Theory of Constraints and monthly reports are also
featured on the Maintenance Center's web site
- The success at the Maintenance Center has fostered additional
IES and CCPM implementations elsewhere in the U.S. military
overhaul and repair world
- The Marine Corps other maintenance center in California
now operates using IES
|
White
Papers 
United
States Marine Corps Maintenance Center - Albany, Georgia,
USA - An Integrated Enterprise Scheduling® Case
Study