OKALC Leans Its Way Into a Paint Job:

The folks in the paint shop at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker AFB, Okla., latched onto a new workload—painting C-130 airlifters—valued at up to $35 million over the next five years. How? The shop has been developing “lean” initiatives for the past five years that reduced the time it takes the workers to process each aircraft—leaving them with excess capacity. Officials tell the Tinker Take-Off that the ALC will still support its primary aircraft—USAF KC-135, B-52, B-1B, and E-3, and Navy E-6. “But we will jump at the chance to paint all the C-130s we can,” says master scheduler Paul Peters. The OKALC will scuff sand, strip, and repaint five C-130s in Fiscal 2006 and is committed to a total of 23 through 2009, but it also can accept up to 25 unscheduled birds per year.