Air Force logistics centers support warfighters 24/7

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WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFNEWS) --  When aircraft maintainers, half-way around the world, need help fast, round-the-clock support is now available at Air Force Materiel Command's three air logistics centers.

The customer support centers, or CSCs, at Tinker AFB, Okla., Robins AFB, Ga., and Hill AFB, Utah, are the product of AFMC's Logistics Transformation Program, an ongoing effort to provide warfighters what they need in minimum time. The centers are open 24 hours, seven days per week.

The CSC specialists' job goes beyond answering questions from maintainers in the field. It also involves cooperatively solving problems those maintainers confront as they work to keep aircraft flying operational missions anywhere in the world --in a rapid reaction way.

"Our goal is to ensure every caller's questions are answered satisfactorily on the first call," said Kitty Broussard, CSC flight chief at Tinker AFB. "In December, we processed more than 3,500 calls, and answered 99 percent of the questions on the first call. The work is very rewarding as we can see first-hand the support we provide to our warfighting customers," she said.

The Customer Relationship Management concept, under which the CSCs operate, includes not only responses to maintainers' questions but a partnership in solving problems. Each party has a stake in finding solutions. Each CSC incorporates a team at each air logistics center to provide a "track and capture" capability for all customer queries and requests.

In recent surveys, customers reported getting their queries answered or issues resolved on their first call 74 percent of the time. Another 87 percent reported they felt the CSC representative understood their question or need. Prior to stand up of the CSCs, customers reported they routinely made five phone calls to resolve a mission-capability question. About 63 percent indicated it was "difficult" to reach the right person to help them.

"A key part of providing 'war-winning capabilities, on time and on cost' is to provide logistics support for Air Force weapon systems around the globe," said Lt. Gen. Terry L. Gabreski, AFMC vice commander. "Establishment of customer service centers that do more than just answer questions is critical to us keeping the warfighter in the center of the radar. When maintainers in the field succeed, we succeed."

Customer involvement and customer satisfaction are the measures of success for the CSCs. To validate results the CSCs were collecting from their own internal customer-satisfaction surveys, the Air Force Institute of Technology, or AFIT, conducted an independent audit. AFIT researchers deployed, collected and reported results from more than 1,500 customer-satisfaction surveys developed specifically for the CSC validation. Feedback showed that 88 percent of customers felt they were getting satisfactory or above service from their CSC. Another 64 percent reported they used the CSC at least weekly.

Another advantage of CSCs I that if an item manager is out of the office on sick leave or vacation, the center has staff duty officers who can track down the information needed without any delay, said George Swinehart the KC-135 Stratotanker Weapons Systems Spares manager at Scott AFB, Ill.

Accurate and timely information is what the warfighter needs most, said Les Parnacott the director of supply operations at the Combat Air Forces Logistics Support Center at Langley AFB, Va.

"If the guy on the flight line in Iraq or Afghanistan knows a part will be in his hands in two days, odds are he won't have to cannibalize parts from other aircraft," Mr. Parnacott said. "There's nothing more frustrating than to cannibalize a part and four hours later that part shows up because the information wasn't available."

And there's little that's more rewarding to the logisticians who created the CSCs than to hear positive feedback such as this comment that came from the Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan: "The rest of the world should be this way."

(Courtesy Air Force Materiel Command Logistics Directorate; Ron Mullan contributed to this story)

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