Using the Air Force Maintenance Data Collection System Data to Identify Candidates for Improvement in Reliability and Maintainability

Abstract : This Note describes a preliminary and limited set of measures using data from the Air Force Maintenance Data Collection System (MDC) to identify likely candidates for reliability and maintainability (R&M) improvement. The method's usefulness depends on the user's having better than average knowledge of the MDC and of base-level maintenance. The MDC is a large, complex, and rich data system. Its magnitude alone is forbidding. The two-step method described shows how to distill these data, prepare useful metrics, and present these data in useful ways to R&M decisionmakers. Site investigations and interviews should be conducted to check the reasons for any high maintenance activity and to understand variability among bases before any R&M improvement program is instituted on a particular system or component.