A new one-stop customer service center here is helping get aircraft replacement parts to “downrange” customers much faster.

The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center here established the center -- open around-the-clock -- to provide customers timely, accurate and “action-based” service.

The center goes hand-in-hand with the Air Force's lean transformation initiative. It is also another example of the wing's purchasing and supply chain management effort to provide expeditionary logistics for the 21st century, said Mark D. Johnson, 448th Combat Sustainment Wing director.

Expected benefits include improved customer satisfaction, a first-call resolution rate of 80 percent, improved manpower resolution and a strategic focus on demand planning, said Darla Bullard, subject matter expert on the service center process.

The idea of establishing the service center was the idea of Lt. Gen. Terry Gabreski. She is a former commander of the logistics center and now Air Force Materiel Command vice-commander. Her plan to establish a service center as the single point of contact for warfighter support developed after she visited the Middle East last fall.

"One of the outcomes of General Gabreski's trip was that she received a number of suggestions from folks who are actually fighting the war on how they could better get in touch with us whenever they needed replacement parts," Ms. Bullard said.

The biggest problem customers faced was that, because of the extreme difference in time zones, they were placing calls at odd hours. The calls were being re-routed a number of different times before someone could resolve an issue, Ms. Bullard said.

So, General Gabreski decided Tinker would have a single, 24-7 operation to provide better support to customers, she said.

“The center merged materiel support distribution functions under one roof in an effort to reduce wait time and provide a single face to the customer,” Ms. Bullard said.

One of General Gabreski's directives was that the service center would have the authority to take action, Ms. Bullard said.

"We are not simply going to relay the news,” she said. “We are going to be proactive instead of reactive."

Josh Rooker, a project officer, said "Since March, the logistics center has seen a 70 percent decrease in unconfirmed shipments."