Robins trio nets $10K Published Oct. 17, 2008 By Holly Birchfield 78 ABW/PA ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- When the Programmable Signal Data Processor, a high-speed computer designed to drive one or more cockpit displays aboard the F-15 aircraft, looked like its life would be cut short, three workers at Robins knew something had to be done to save it. Robert Foster, an equipment specialist in the 407th Supply Chain Management Squadron's Navigation Flight; George Crawford, an electronic technician in the 568th Electronics Maintenance Squadron; and Leroy Phillips, an electronics worker in the 402nd Electronics Mainenance Group, discovered that the signal's air plenum had detached from the chassis, causing electrical shorts and overheating problems. "It wasn't getting air to the unit efficiently," Mr. Foster said. "It was shorting out wires when the air plenum came loose, which in turn caused the unit to overheat." Mr. Foster said to solve the problem, he and his co-workers devised a way to reattach the air plenum to the chassis without having to discard the whole unit. It was a solution that saved the Air Force a little more than $4 million and earned the trio a $10,000 reward through the Innovative Development through Employee Awareness program, an incentive program that promotes progress, improvement, and resource savings through ideas submitted by military and civilian employees. Mr. Crawford admitted that finding a workable solution wasn't easy. "It's hard to condemn these units, especially when soon we won't have any to condemn," he said. "We just started butting our heads to come up with a solution. We went through some engineers to make sure the epoxy we used was right, and we finally came up with something." Mr. Phillips said the group had to get the assistance of others to make the solution a success. "To streamline the process, we had to go through several different processes," he said. "We had to go to the Machine Shop and try to get them to get us a template plate to hold it down after we epoxied it. We had to have schedulers and planners go outside and get the proper tools we needed because these were tools that we did not have in our work area." It took the group about six months of locating the right materials and the right procedure to reattach the component and get it in working order. Mr. Foster said before their solution, there was no replacement for these units, and the Air Force was paying $63,000 per unit. That's not the case for the units now. More than 70 units have been restored using the group's solution and the solution has eliminated backorders. "Ever since we've done this process, we've yet to receive one back with the same problem," Mr. Phillips said. "We went from over 75 backorders to none for this process in a year's time." While the team brought great benefits for the Air Force through its idea, Mr. Phillips said they owe a lot of their idea's recognition to Doug McCulloch, Electronic Integrated Systems Mechanic supervisor, for going the extra mile to ensure the concept was sent through the proper channels to implement it through the Air Force IDEA program. Renee Beringer, IDEA program manager at Robins, said the group's idea was a great example of how people's ideas can make a difference for the warfighter. "It took a long time, but it was well worth the effort," she said. "In my personal opinion, it has saved the government lots of money. Instead of condemning this part, they're actually repairing it."