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The Training Aircraft Systems Program Office (TASPO), headquartered at RAAF East Sale has achieved significant engineering efficiencies through its recent reform program and is now looking to roll out further reforms which will also benefit aircraft maintenance.

With the oversight of the Director General, Technical Airworthiness, ADF (DGTA-ADF) and under the leadership of Chief Engineer, Wing Commander Grant ‘Hurricane’ Herrmann OAM, TASPO has recently completed Project Meliora, a series of engineering reforms which has delivered a 99 per cent rate of effort and financial spend across the PC-9/A fleet.

TASPO overview
TASPO is responsible for the fleet of 63 Pilatus PC-9/A training aircraft, as well as 16 Beechcraft King Air 350s which are spread between training and operational units.

The PC-9/As are operated by the Central Flying School at East Sale and 2 Flying Training School at Pearce, both under Air Force Training Group; No.4 Squadron at Williamtown, which reports to Air Combat Group; and the Aircraft Research and Development unit, part of the Aerospace Operational Support Group at Edinburgh.

The King Airs are equally divided between 32 Squadron at East Sale (supporting training at the School of Air Warfare) and 38 Squadron at Townsville, part of Air Mobility Group. Last year the fleet flew 5700 flying hours for the first time ever, under a ‘power by the hour contract’ with Hawker Pacific.

The RAAF PC-9/A aircraft entered service in 1987 and today are the global fleet leaders, with the highest-time aircraft having flown more than 8500 hours.

Delays to the ADF’s Pilot Training System (Air 5428) has meant that the PC-9/A has had to stay in service longer than originally planned and the recent Defence Budget Portfolio statement now predicts a Planned Withdrawal Date (PWD) of at least December 2019.

Maintenance on the PC-9/A fleet is contracted out to Airflite and TASPO also has a close relationship with other industry players such as BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman IDS.

TASPO has an annual sustainment budget of around $70 million, but predicts that the likelihood of unscheduled PC-9/A unavailability will increase due to the PWD shift to 2020 timeframe. To assist reducing risk at a tactical level TASPO is concentrating on a RAM program.

Project Meliora
Upon taking the position of Chief Engineer at TASPO in December 2012, WGCDR Herrmann identified a number of areas where efficiencies could be made in the engineering process and the subsequent reforms introduced have freed up significant ‘headspace’, which at least in part is now being utilised to conduct preliminary studies to extend the PC-9/As out to the 2020 timeframe.

Project Meliora (a Latin adjective, meaning ‘better’) was formed in late 2012 with the goal of continuing to provide Airworthiness to the regulated levels, whilst at the same time applying LEAN principals to the Engineering Management System (EMS), embedding the LEAN engineering activities within TASPO and partnering with DGTA to LEAN Technical Airworthiness Regulations.

A pillar of this approach has been to gain a greater situational awareness of engineering requirements and to operate in a proactive manner – including the empowerment of staff. For example, this has seen many of the engineering decisions delegated to appropriately qualified but less senior personnel, thereby freeing up a significant ‘log jam’ of paperwork.

Among the many of Meliora’s achievements by way of illustration, has been the reduction of sustainment tasks over two years old from over 200 in 2012 to just 25 at the present time; the number of outstanding non-assed engineering tasks over 30 days old reduced from an average of more than 30 to zero; outstanding engineering tasks halved, from 650 to 290; tasks more than two years old reduced from 125 to five: outstanding safety related inspections reduced from 32 to three; and TASPO ‘touch time’ with structural repairs reduced by 80 per cent.

“It is amazing what can be achieved by revitalising an Engineering Management System, establishing a task management system, implementing robust product and health indicators and most importantly, bringing people on the journey,” WGCDR Herrmann said.

“The results are based on the old adage that process makes it possible, but people make it happen. Leadership is about communicating with people and you can’t measure reform if you can’t manage it. Staff involvement was critical and a survey after the completion of Meliora showed that all staff thought the EMS was better than it had been in December 2012.”

Reliable, Available, Maintainable
Project Meliora was officially completed earlier this year and the focus is now on extending reforms into the maintenance space under the RAM (Reliable, Available, Maintainable) program which began in May.

RAM aims to safely achieve the planned PC-9/A flying program by maximising aircraft availability at minimal cost for the December 2019 PWD.

The first unit to incorporate the initial changes identified under the RAM process will be 4 Squadron at Williamtown, followed by ARDU, the Central Flying School and, finally, 2 FTS at Pearce.

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