RAF MAINTENANCE LOOKS FORWARD
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by John Durant
THE MOVEMENT of priority freight deserves priority maintenance: and that is just what the vehicles at RAF Stafford are given.
Moving priority freight for airfields, depots and factories throughout Britain and around the huge stores and other 'buildings at the depot is the straightforward responsibility of Squadron Leader John Greenhalgh. But the odd thing is that he can't get his drivers "fell in''. they're not airmen but mostly members of the Transport and General Workers' Union. His second in command is a civilian. Which makes his job one of the most unusual in transport.
The only transport officer in charge of a civilian manned MT squadron, he has to budget and run productivity schemes and negotiate with the unions; while being responsible to the CO for the entire squadron he also has to conform both to the regular procedures of the Services and regulations of the DTp. He is not, of course, concerned with the off-duty welfare of his drivers as he would be with that of Servicemen.
It obviously requires tact and diplomacy for an officer to handle civilians, and it doubt'ess requires tact and diplomacy 3t times for a transport man to axplain distribution matters and ndustrial relations problems to ligh-ranking officers.
However, he wears well. His ast posting was at an operatiolal unit with Phantom jets. But 3t Stafford the drivers refer to urn as "The Boss. He has been n transport since he was 18 n the RAF — and his postings -iave included Germany, the Far East and Christmas Island. He las an hgv driver's licence and oves driving big outfits.
His is a big job he is in :harge of more than 300 ,ehicles and trailers; their nileage is huge — but only one ilameworthy accident occurs on iverage in every 6m miles; the onnage moved is heavy; and
the number of pieces in the stores can be numbered in many million — so too their value in pounds sterling. Stock is held for all three Services, and there are dozens of fork-lift trucks. A man is on duty in the transport office 24 hours a day; and early bird" runs leave every 12 hours. Special vehicles include those belonging to a mountain rescue team.
Well-equipped, spacious workshops include half a dozen pits; servicing is based on a time and mileage basis as it would be in any fleet, but as the vehicles' job is moving priority freight, maintenance has that added importance. The percentage of breakdowns is very small.
Although Squadron Leader Greenhalgh's lorries — they're being painted in anti-infra-red paint against detection by aerial photography — don't have to conform to all British regulations, they must comply with C and U Regulations, and are, subject to DoE roadside spotchecks. However, he has never heard of a base where a Services vehicle failed one of these._ _ Vehicles have been stopped by the police and the driver "required" to produce his certificate of insurance, MoT certificate and road fund licence. of course. Services vehicles don't have these things. Similarly, traffic wardens have "noted" drivers for having irregular number plates two figures, two letters, two figures . . . and the depot coach drivers don't have psv licences, because the vehicles are not for public hire.
Civilian drivers have been employed at Stafford since 1958 they were cheaper then than Servicemen. Times have changed.
But could any civvy outfit compare with the RAF on cornputerised vehicle records? Their comprehensiveness is good news for the taxpayer. The transport offices have an enormous number of options on points of information they can ask for, and get, often within minutes, via FORWARD — the Feedback of Repair Workshop and Reliability Data system. This is a system for equipment and management information based on inspection and modification data. FORWARD'S data can be used in a mathematical model to determine vehicle lives and repair limits; provide an information bank from which the reliability of RAF vehicles and their components can be determined;
fl assist the Army Scaling Authority in more accurate pro• vision of spares;
improve the efficiency of MT management by providing information at all levels.
The RAF contingent at the REME Data Centre is largely responsible for the FORWARD system as applied to RAF MT.
All my execs have been in the trade a long time and notice if there is anything out of the ordinary. Not long ago we seemed to be getting through too many bulbs on an AEC,'' said John Greenhalgh.
"This came up at our daily meeting and I had a talk with our chargehand electrician. So I asked for last month's 1084" (the form recording the daily state of MT vehicles) "and requested an interrogation from the computer, having looked up the code for bulbs. I can learn how many bulbs are used, say, last month, year, three months, and how many similar vehicles there are throughout Command.
-What happened in this case is that as a result I put in a defect report on this particular make of bulb and then they were tested by the quality assurance people at MoD.
"If their tests support my figures it is likely they will suggest a change of supplier."
He explained that if he wanted to check around how long should be taken on a particular job, say changing the rear springs on a Bedford KFC, then he could write a letter for in
terrogation asking for comparison time. The reply would tell him the number of times his men had done this job, the average time for doing it, the standard deviation (say, perhaps, three quarters of an hou to one hour and a half), and the same figures for the RA generally, plus facts like ho many miles occurred between changes. He, of course, kne the cost and the cost pe standard hour.
Knowledge to be gained fro the computer could be taken stage further. If his unit wer acquiring a new vehicle, it coul tell him what spares he coul expect to need and when, an what jobs he could expect to do
Not surprisingly, John Geen halgh read CM's features o terotechnology and follow-u references in the "Dear Sir page, particularly the letter fro H. J. Webb of Clevedo pointing out that most haulier are already collecting statistic dealing with maintenance an costs through a monthly inspeci tion and record form. "TI-1 other channel in the practice o• tetrotechnology, the one whiclis unfortunately neglected, i; the feedback of operating infor mation to the designer," wroa Mr Webb.
"The RAF computer is a for ward reporting aid to manage ment, planning, costing am consideration for future buys,' explained John Greenhalgh Similarly, he suggested, infor mation could be collected fror hgv testing stations for corr puter analysis.
'If individual operator shared outlets from a centre computer, say through the RH, and FTA, they could record the own details and find which ar the expensive vehicles t maintain, which are 'cheaper' t buy, and learn a vast amoui about their reliability an maintainability. There could L a transfer of information • benefit the whole road transpo industry;" he said. The ide would be for everyone to have central computer to interrogaa