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AFIT EWI Fellows attend F-35 Base Stand-Up at MCAS Miramar and identify best practices

Posted Thursday, December 05, 2019

 

By Capt Anton Martyn and Capt William Fine

On 21 October, 2019, two Air Force Institute of Technology Education with Industry (EWI) Fellows with Lockheed Martin, Anton Martyn and William Fine, traveled to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California.  There they met a joint team of Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, and United States Marine Corps (USMC) personnel with the task of catching the base’s initial shipment of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) parts, designed to provide maintainers the consumables and line-replaceable components necessary to keep the 5th generation fighter aircraft flying.



A caged bay in the MCAS Miramar warehouse where boxes await unpacking
(USAF photo by Capt William Fine)


The Miramar Base Stand-Up (BSU) provided an opportunity to work on a diverse team out of the MCAS Miramar F-35 supply warehouse which will ultimately support 24 F-35Cs, the first of which arrive in January 2020.  The resulting integration between parties enabled a unique perspective regarding how the F-35 JSF program operates its supply chain and an understanding of how a Base Support Package (BSP) is delivered and received to new F-35 bases around the world.  Receiving the initial shipment for a BSU typically takes between 2 and 3 weeks, but with the combined expertise from procurement, item management, Autonomic Logistics Information System, and warehouse specialists, the team was able to in-check every delivered package within 5 days.  During this period, the team sorted, matched, opened, verified, put away, and recorded 2,000 unique line items accounting for 38,000 individual parts. 

The F-35 is a very computer-centric aircraft boasting an interconnected supply system with the ability to interface all the way from the jet to enterprise level supply.  That said, the team still faced some challenges, as a BSU is a primarily manual process.  Inventory accuracy is also extremely important to ensure that the parts the maintainers need are available when the aircraft requires maintenance.  This resulted in the team needing to sort through boxes of parts to find the correct paperwork for each part, some of which consisted of a single bolt. 


An unpacked box undergoing sorting to match paperwork with each individual package
(USAF photo by Capt William Fine)


Once this was accomplished, the team verified that all the information written on the paperwork matched the part.  This is especially important for the line-replaceable components, which are often serialized and have a unique identifier to track all information about their use.  The aircraft requires this data to install the part.  With the data verified, and the box labeled for standardization in the warehouse, the team then found locations on the shelves for each part.


Line replaceable components, verified, processed and placed on shelves until needed.
(USAF photo by Capt William Fine)


Overall, the team did an amazing job receiving the BSU shipments.  Within a week the space had been transformed from an empty set of shelves and drawers to a stocked warehouse, and the team was also able to identify some best practices to further improve BSUs in the future.  The EWI fellows returned to Fort Worth, the center of F-35 production and sustainment, with a better understanding of the F-35 supply system and appreciation of what it takes to keep the world’s most advanced fighter aircraft flying.
 

 

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