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Providing a piece of the puzzle: insights into the aircraft availability conundrum

Providing a piece of the puzzle: insights into the aircraft availability conundrum Aircraft availability (AA) is a key metric for assessing operational readiness. The declining trend in AA is a documented concern for senior Air Force leaders. This paper aims to investigate the components of non-available time and subsequently focuses on the largest and fastest growing category: not mission capable maintenance unscheduled (NMCMU). Then, utilization of aircraft platforms is examined to determine the readiness benefits of increasing available hours.Design/methodology/approachStepwise regression is conducted on a data set of 30 aircraft platforms, consisting of 542 observations from 1998 to 2017, to reveal drivers of NMCMU. Next, utilization of aircraft platforms is examined through regression and correlation analysis of aircraft platforms and sorties or hours flown.FindingsRegression analysis reveals drivers of NMCMU include platform type, average age of aircraft, fleet size, breaks and cannibalization. These factors explain 80.6 per cent of the variance in the data set when predicting NMCMU. Additionally, the utilization results show that when more hours are made available, 5 per cent of each new hour is used for flying. Further analysis at the individual platform level finds a strong or moderate correlation between available hours and sorties flown for 93 per cent of the platforms.Originality/valueImplications from the regression analysis demonstrate there are remedies to increase AA, but many of these remedies may be costly. The utilization analysis expresses the potential readiness benefits of increasing available hours. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Defense Analytics and Logistics Emerald Publishing

Providing a piece of the puzzle: insights into the aircraft availability conundrum

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References (23)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© In accordance with section 105 of the US Copyright Act, this work has been produced by a US government employee and shall be considered a public domain work, as copyright protection is not available.
ISSN
2399-6439
DOI
10.1108/jdal-09-2018-0015
Publisher site
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Abstract

Aircraft availability (AA) is a key metric for assessing operational readiness. The declining trend in AA is a documented concern for senior Air Force leaders. This paper aims to investigate the components of non-available time and subsequently focuses on the largest and fastest growing category: not mission capable maintenance unscheduled (NMCMU). Then, utilization of aircraft platforms is examined to determine the readiness benefits of increasing available hours.Design/methodology/approachStepwise regression is conducted on a data set of 30 aircraft platforms, consisting of 542 observations from 1998 to 2017, to reveal drivers of NMCMU. Next, utilization of aircraft platforms is examined through regression and correlation analysis of aircraft platforms and sorties or hours flown.FindingsRegression analysis reveals drivers of NMCMU include platform type, average age of aircraft, fleet size, breaks and cannibalization. These factors explain 80.6 per cent of the variance in the data set when predicting NMCMU. Additionally, the utilization results show that when more hours are made available, 5 per cent of each new hour is used for flying. Further analysis at the individual platform level finds a strong or moderate correlation between available hours and sorties flown for 93 per cent of the platforms.Originality/valueImplications from the regression analysis demonstrate there are remedies to increase AA, but many of these remedies may be costly. The utilization analysis expresses the potential readiness benefits of increasing available hours.

Journal

Journal of Defense Analytics and Logistics – Emerald Publishing

Published: Jul 9, 2019

Keywords: Regression; Maintenance; Utilization; Aircraft availability

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