News

Switch upgrade provides training opportunity

  • Published
  • By Kendahl Johnson
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  When network equipment across the base started failing, teams from the 78th Communications Squadron stepped in to fix the problem and ensure the mission at Robins would be unaffected.

In March 2008, members of the 78th CS were finishing an upgrade project and discovered some of the switches on newly-installed network equipment were failing. They contacted the vendor, who evaluated the equipment and determined that the switches were indeed faulty.

Rather than replace the switches one at a time upon failure, the vendor recommended replacing all the switches and agreed to provide the more than $7 million worth of new network equipment.

"We all at once had a huge logistics problem in receiving about 1,300 switches," said network engineer Ron Stewart.

In addition to the logistical challenge of receiving, storing, deploying and installing the "truckloads upon truckloads" of equipment, the squadron needed to determine how best to implement the project without seriously impacting the customer.

The onus fell on Robert Coleman, infrastructure flight chief, and Tech. Sgt. Renee Lewis, NCO in charge of network infrastructure, to determine the best way to tackle the daunting project. The duo applied Lean principles to identify three processes: receipt and return of equipment, software installation on the new equipment, and hardware installation.

Although a project that size could potentially take three to five years to complete, using Lean principles they estimated they could finish in about 15 months. However, a new wrinkle in the project forced them on an even faster track for project completion.

"We learned that a large amount of our skilled military members would be leaving Robins for reassignment so we had to kick it in high gear," Sergeant Lewis said.

With trained workers scheduled to leave Robins, the project took a greater sense of urgency. And with an influx of Airmen brand new to the Air Force, the project also had greater meaning; it became a training mission as well as an install mission.

"We had a chance to train a lot of the new Airmen," said Senior Airman Edward Edwards, network infrastructure engineer. "It was an opportunity to bring our skills up to speed. We got to take entire closets and engineer them the way we wanted. We got everything done the right way, with minimum down time for customers."

Due to the size of the project, the 78th CS implemented two shifts, a day shift and a swing shift, to work on the project full time. The squadron also employed the help of the 5th Combat Communications Group, which was willing to offer Airmen to assist because of the great training opportunities.

"We have a lot of younger technicians working toward a fully qualified skill level who don't normally get a chance to touch base infrastructure so we jumped at the chance to help," said Senior Master Sgt. Warren Johnson, a superintendent in the 53rd Combat Communications Squadron. "It was a great opportunity for our folks to expand their skills and get real work experience prior to going out on deployments. It gave us better Airmen to send to the war fight."

In addition to the training benefits, the project also provided an opportunity to improve network infrastructure base-wide. Instead of just swapping out faulty equipment with the new equipment, teams upgraded facilities in 340 buildings and more than 600 closets, upgrading racks, improving cable management and installing uninterrupted power supplies,

"We are way better off than we were before," Sergeant Lewis said. "This equipment is not only newer, it has more functionality to it. We have a more secure network than we had before."

After an estimated 14,000 hours spent on the switch upgrade project, teams completed the final install Monday, six months ahead of schedule.

"This was a total team effort," Mr. Stewart said. "We had a seamless integration of military, civilians and contract workers who all worked well together."