4th LRS helps lead the way with CRF

  • Published
  • By Airman Shawna L. Keyes
  • 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

The 4th Logistic Readiness Squadron was notified of a big change directed by the Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, in May 2015. The 4th LRS began preparing to participate in a new initiative to consolidate aircraft maintenance back shops into one centralized repair facility.

 

The CRF was designed to save the Air Force money and manpower by having maintainers work with a computer program called Execution and Prioritization of Repair Support System. This program catalogs all hydraulic parts to determine if and when maintenance would be able to fix repairable and unserviceable parts.

The old process sent their broken parts to a depot maintenance shop, one of which is located at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. The Air Force now saves money on shipping costs and contractors by having broken parts sent to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, where they are repaired by Airmen.

“We process and store maintenance parts in an unserviceable location when they come in from the back shop or other bases,” said Tech. Sgt. Jewel Stott, 4th LRS NCO in-charge of CRF. “Both the CRF and the maintenance back shop use the EXPRESS program that tells us which parts the back shop is ready to fix and those parts will be kicked off our shelf and sent back for repair.”

Once the parts are repaired, CRF takes them back to their shelves and enters them into the EXPRESS program so other Air Force bases can look them up and request them. EXPRESS acts as an online store for other maintenance back shops to browse available parts.

Along with Seymour Johnson AFB, two other stateside bases were chosen to kick-start the program: Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., and Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. Each base covers an area from the East coast to the West coast, respectively.

The program here started with two Airmen; Stott and Senior Airman Logan Allen, 4th LRS CRF technician. It also consisted of a small storage area, a laptop, two tablets and various office supplies donated from other shops, with roughly 200 assets in their keep.   

“We got our first two repairable parts from Seymour Johnson AFB on Oct. 6, 2015. A nose landing gear actuator and a main landing gear brake, and this began our CRF process,” said Stott. “In December we got F-16 [Fighting Falcon] parts from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and another Airman, Staff Sgt. [Jeffrey] Cook, to help out.”

Seymour Johnson AFB CRF also supports the F-16 Fighting Falcon airframe from Shaw AFB, South Carolina, and the A-10 Thunderbolt II and HH-60 Pave Hawk airframes from Moody Air Force Base, Ga.

“The CRF sees a lot of A-10, F-16 and F-15 brakes rotate through repair and shipment out to various bases that support that airframe,” said Staff Sgt. Kacey Murphey, 4th LRS assistant NCO in-charge of CRF.

The CRF also sends and receives parts from these bases to be serviced at Seymour Johnson AFB, and redistributes them throughout the Air Force using the EXPRESS program. That lets other bases look up parts that they need and order them from Seymour Johnson AFB.

Since the program began, it has grown from an inventory of 200 to more than 500 parts and has saved the Air Force approximately $10 million.

“It’s been almost a year since the CRF stood up and everything is running smoothly,” said Murphy. “There have been some bumps in the road, but with all the combined experience here, we have been able to succeed past any expectations set for us.”