Aviation Week Award lauds WR-ALC for excellence Published April 25, 2013 By Tim Kurtz Warner RObins Air Logistics Complex ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- The innovation and hard work that spurred a renaissance in aircraft production has earned the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex another major award. The complex was honored with the 2013 Aviation Week Military Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul of the Year Award on April 16. Doug Keene, WR-ALC vice director, accepted the award for the complex at Aviation Week's MRO Americas Conference and Exhibition at the World Congress Center in Atlanta. The annual awards honor aviation entities from around the world for outstanding achievement and innovation in aviation MRO. The awards are presented by Aviation Week & Space Technology in four categories; airline, independent, supplier and military. The complex won the award on the strength of its 98 percent on-time delivery rate for aircraft in 2012 - a dramatic increase in efficiency following a 47 percent rate in 2011. "We are humbled and honored to receive this great recognition," Brig. Gen. Cedric George, WR-ALC commander, said. He deemed the Aviation Week MRO Award as "recognition of our relentless focus on speed, quality and safety across our production machines. What we are doing is working so we must stay focused on delivering cost effective readiness to our sons and daughters in harm's way. "Each member of this complex shares in this honor - a team award for a team victory," the general said. "It was earned through a unified determination, a focused vision and a championship effort. As a commander, I couldn't be prouder of our people." AW&ST noted WR-ALC's application of Critical Chain Project Management and Theory of Constraints methodologies since 2005 as a foundation for the dramatic resurgence. "Typically, military MRO organizations try to deal with missed delivery deadlines by pushing even more aircraft into production," the AW&ST award announcement article said, "but Warner Robins tried the opposite last year -- by reducing the work in production to get more done. The MRO focused on the C-130 and F-15 squadrons, the Commodities Maintenance Group, and the test program squadron in the software maintenance group. As a result, it returned 25 percent more aircraft to the Air Force with the same resources." Lee Ann Tegtmeir, Aviation Week MRO chief editor, presented the award to Keene at the Atlanta conference. She said the innovative practices utilized by the MRO awards winners are important examples that have widespread effect in the aviation community. "We salute the MRO of the Year award winners for their pioneering achievements and value-adding accomplishments," Tegtmeier said in a press release. "Their dedication to asking the right questions and developing innovative solutions inspires all of us in the aviation aftermarket industry." Aviation Week publishes magazines and online editorial content for the global aviation, aerospace and defense industries.