Statistical Analysis of Naval Aviation Depot Repair Cycle Time Reduction for the F/A-18 C/D Aircraft

Reducing U.S. Navy inventory control problems associated with the F/ A-18 C/D aircraft is critical to maintaining squadron readiness while minimizing procurement and repair costs. The Navy's Inventory Control Point has designed its Carcass Express program to ensure that critically short depot level repairables are serviced more quickly. The program was initiated on the S-3 Viking aircraft in 1999. Subsequently, the number of constrained carcasses was reduced by 40 percent, and the average depot repair cycle time was reduced by 12 days. This thesis attempts to quantify the savings that can be realized by instituting the Carcass Express program for the F/A-18 C/D. Data for F/A-18 C/D repairable items that were identified as having insufficient carcasses for repair to meet current demand levels are analyzed. These repairable items have high dollar values and significant backorders severely impacting squadron readiness. It is shown that the Carcass Express program would provide an additional accrual of inventory over a four-year period for the items studied. The required funding needed to support the deficit between items available from the depot repair cycle and forecast quarterly demands would decrease. The Carcass Express initiative would improve the predictability of the Depot Repair Cycle by reducing repair cycle variability. This ultimately would lead to better inventory management.Naval Postgraduate School Monterey CA is the author of 'Statistical Analysis of Naval Aviation Depot Repair Cycle Time Reduction for the F/A-18 C/D Aircraft', published 2001 under ISBN 9781423528579 and ISBN 1423528573.