The Warner Robins Air Logistics Center received an award for its efforts to streamline its C-5 Galaxy aircraft repair and overhaul processes.

The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences announced May 1 that the center won the 2006 Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Operations Research. The center won for "Streamlining Aircraft Repair and Overhaul at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center."

The award ends a competition referred to as the “Super Bowl of OR.” Competition for the award brings together the very best examples of innovation in operations research from large and small, for-profit and nonprofit, corporate and government organizations around the world.

Ken Percell, executive director and senior civilian at the air logistics center, and Bill Best, deputy director of the 402nd Aircraft Maintenance Support Group, accepted the award.

"Warner Robins is extremely pleased to receive the Franz Edelman Award for our work on reducing flow days for the C-5 aircraft line,” Mr. Percell said. “The results underscore the gains that a proper application of these tools can offer to the Air Force. This accomplishment should reinvigorate the use of operations research in the Air Force and across all branches of the military in general."

The logistic center's nomination package described how it used operations research in 2005 to arrive at a radically different approach to manage the repair and overhaul activity on its C-5 transport aircraft. The center used a technique called critical chain project management to reduce the number of C-5s undergoing repair and overhaul in the depot from 13 to seven in just eight months. This reduced the time required to repair and overhaul the aircraft by 33 percent.

The five additional aircraft now in operation have generated immediate additional revenue of at least $49.8 million per year. The replacement value for these aircraft is estimated at $2.37 billion. The additional workload the center is accommodating will bring in additional revenue of $119 million through 2008, with this number projected to increase to $248 million by 2009.

“To be recognized by the business and academic communities for improvements we’ve made at this center, especially with aircraft maintenance operations, is quite an honor,” Mr. Best said. “This is what happens when the most capable people use the most innovative and advanced tools for this highly complex operation.”

“On behalf of the entire C-5 enterprise, we are thrilled to win the 2006 Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Operations Research and the Management Sciences,” said Col. David Holcomb, C-5 system program manager. “The use of critical chain project management to reduce the time required for depot maintenance is a key element of our plan to increase aircraft availability.”

The colonel said Warner Robins’ 402nd Maintenance Wing has executed critical chain project management brilliantly. This has resulted in the Air Force having additional C-5 aircraft available to accomplish its rapid global mobility mission.

“This initiative has provided our mobility air forces with five additional aircraft to provide inter-theater airlift support to our troops around the world,” the colonel said. “The team’s outstanding contribution to our nation’s security warrants this prestigious award.

The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences is an international scientific society with 10,000 members, including Nobel Prize laureates, dedicated to applying scientific methods to help improve decision-making, management and operations.