Thrust...Better with Vector By: 2Lt Justin Hemken
I
n October 2015, I arrived at Dyess AFB, my first duty station, as a freshly minted Second Lieutenant
and was assigned to the Propulsion Flight in the 7th Component Maintenance Squadron (7 CMS) supporting the B-1B Lancer and its F101 engine. As directed by my supervision, I immersed myself into the operation and gained appreciation for the work our engine mechanics perform daily. After a few weeks, I began to get a feel for the organization’s processes, metrics and challenges. As events unfolded, and with much support from the Senior Non-Commissioned Officers (SNCOs) in the flight, we determined that we didn’t really know the rate at which we were fixing, and ultimately producing, F101 engines. We didn’t have realistic and achievable goals for production. However, given an opportunity to excel, we quickly established goals, improved processes, reinforced the importance of “knowing your business” throughout all ranks and skill levels, and F101 engine production soared! As a community, the F-101 War Readiness Engine (WRE) fleet ebbed and flowed like most spare engine stocks, but remained consistently between 21-24 spare engines.
U.S. Air Force Airmen push a repaired B-1B Lancer/F101 engine out of Dyess’ F101 Centralized Repair Facility Dec. 22, 2015, at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. Each engine typically takes about 20 days to repair, but after eliminating redundancies in the inspection system, 7th CMS Airmen have projected that number to about 15 days. (U.S. Air Force photo by 2nd Lt. Lauren Linscott/Released)
Unfortunately, within the first three 29