USAF mobility airmen team up to build cargo loading efficiency
2012 03 14
- Details
IN the 18 years since USAF Master Sgt Mitch Pykosz first became involved in air transportation, he has moved on from building cargo pallets for aircraft to become a team leader on Air Mobility Command's (AMC) cargo precision loading programme, working with a "great team" of mobility airmen across the globe to make cargo loading more effective and efficient.
Originally started in July 2010 as a next generation cargo capability initiative, the project morphed into "cargo precision loading," as it grew through the participation of a myriad of aerial ports, people and efforts throughout Air Mobility Command, said Mr Pykosz, precision loading programme manager for AMC's directorate of logistics, air transportation cargo policy team, a report by Avionics Intelligence said.
According to an AMC paper on the initiative, the precision loading programme "standardises air cargo build up from depot suppliers and AMC aerial ports to maximise volume and weight utilisation."
The programme increases operational effectiveness and reduces fuel cost while meeting the component commander end customers' "Time Definite Delivery," or TDD, requirements. The programme's principles lead to more efficiently-built cargo pallets, resulting in less pallets by-count, and more efficiently utilised aircraft, resulting in less aircraft sortie requirements.
"The bottom line," Mr Pykosz said, "is it saves AMC and the Air Force money."
The first four aerial port units to test out the new precision loading initiative were at Dover AFB, Delaware, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, Travis AFB, California, and the AMC aerial port squadron in Norfolk, Virginia. In October 2011, AMC implemented a new precision loading policy at all AMC aerial ports throughout the world.
"At the same time as pallet building principles were being re-engineered and refocused, AMC personnel were partnering with US Transportation Command and Defense Logistics Agency personnel to seek utilisation improvements elsewhere."
On the implementation of the new policy, AMC instructed people at the cargo-processing and load planning levels to "strive for specific pallet and aircraft utilisation goals, in accordance with mission requirements."
Mr Pykosz has been present for the growth of the initiative since nearly the beginning. "The (precision loading) programme started several months before I started working with the team members," he said. "When I started, I was charged with giving the programme an expansion plan. As a team we've built that plan and expanded it to the rest of Air Mobility Command's aerial ports and en route air mobility squadrons. It's a great programme that is working very well with improving efficiency."
One area of efficiency that comes into play is utilising as much pallet space as possible on both contract and military airlift missions, which in turn requires less missions to complete, Mr Pykosz said. The effort includes building pallets to their maximum weight or volume goals, based on specific aircraft requirements.
Through February, precision loading enabled a nine per cent mission utilisation increase which led to an avoidance of 195 air missions.
Source Shipping Gazette - Daily Shipping News
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