Production Team Maintenance : Systemic Constraints Impacting Implementation

The purpose of this research project was two-fold: (a) to identify the factors adversely impacting implementation of Production Team Maintenance (PTM) in the KC-135 tanker maintenance community, and (b) to propose recommendations to improve PTM's viability in the field. In addition to a comprehensive historical literature review of the conceptual evolution of PTM, two assessment methods, strategic control and the Theory of Constraints, were applied to analyze PTM at both strategic and operational levels. Five implicit assumptions integral to AMC's notional PTM model were introduced. Identified constraints included: integrating the PTM positioning strategy into the AMC corporate strategic planning process, manpower modeling simulator limitations, labor force authorizations and decentralization, aircraft assignment/alignment, instructional guidance, the Integrated Tanker Unit Deployment operations concept, the 120-day personnel deployment policy, and the command training objective. Over time, the accumulation of new policies, which were developed to cope with a very different post-Cold War national security environment, left the maintenance community wrongly postured for today's defense demands. Several specific recommendations were proposed, all of which can be generalized into three categories. First, deliberately integrate PTM into the strategic-level operations management planning framework. Second, redefine PTM to better posture maintenance to support higher headquarters' strategic goals, objectives and operational tasks as well as Air Force and command policies. And third, restructure PTM to promote standardization within the KC-135 community and to improve its "fit" in the field.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH School of Logistics and Acquis Ition Management is the author of 'Production Team Maintenance : Systemic Constraints Impacting Implementation', published 1997 under ISBN 9781423570882 and ISBN 142357088X.