Air Force Building in Georgia Clears the Air for Workplace Safety

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A year ago, Building 169 at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia was the epicenter of the base’s troubles with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

An inspection of the building by OSHA investigators found dust in the building with excessive levels of toxins. That led to 13 citations in Building 169, home of the 574th Composite Repair Flight, and a total of 39 citations across the base as the investigation branched out.

Today, Robins has resolved all 39 citations, and things are starkly different in Building 169.

The building has undergone many safety improvements but at the top of the list is cleanliness. Numerous steps have been taken to contain and clean the dust that comes from sanding aircraft parts and other work done in the building. Tests have indicated the steps are working.

“The evidence is showing that we’ve got good housekeeping processes in place,” said George Pierce, director of the flight.

At first, weekly swipes were taken around the building and sent to an independent lab for testing. When those tests all came back with no detectable levels of toxins, they started doing it once a month, and now they are only doing it quarterly.

Earl Mann, who leads the building’s Voluntary Protection Program, doesn’t need tests to know there is a difference.

“You can walk in here now and just smell cleanness,” he said.

Col. Evan Miller, 402nd Maintenance Wing commander, said the building now is not only a model of safety, but also efficiency. He credited safety improvements in the building with actually leading to better production levels. That includes two key parts of the giant C-5 cargo plane — the pylons that hold the engine to the wing and the flaps, which attach to the wing and pilots adjust to slow the plane as it lands.

Delays in getting both parts refurbished were key contributors to the C-5 section missing deadlines for completion.

A year ago, half of the planes maintained at Robins were being finished late, and the C-5 section was one of the worst offenders. Since Oct. 1, however, Robins has had a 100-percent on-time delivery rate.

“I think the work we’ve done in the C-5 pylon shop has been a direct contributor to producing aircraft on time,” Miller said. “They have really transformed.”

It was not unusual previously for C-5 maintainers to essentially have a plane finished except for getting the pylons back, so the engines could be put back on. To get started on the next plane, that plane would be pushed outside on the flightline. When the pylons were finished, mechanics would then go outside and finish the job. It’s not the optimum way to re-install engines, Miller said.

A year ago the shop was producing three pylons per month, but now it is producing five. In August the C-5 pylon shop for the first time reached the important milestone of actually having pylons finished and on the shelf waiting to be used, rather than having mechanics waiting on the pylons.

Some of the reasons for the improvement are related to process changes, but safety changes also have had the effect of speeding production. One of those is that the 1-ton pylons are now placed on air-powered scissor lifts that allow mechanics to raise or lower the part depending on where they are working. It was done to reduce physical strain on mechanics. Previously the pylons would rest on a dolly, which mechanics had to climb on to reach where they needed to work.

However, it also has had the result of speeding up the work.

“It’s a 100-percent more efficient,” said sheet metal mechanic Harmke Wooten as she worked on a pylon. “It takes a lot of time off the process. Instead of squatting and standing and squatting and standing, you just raise and lower it to where you need it.”

That’s just one of many improvements in the shop that have contributed to both safety and efficiency, said Pierce. Changes related to better ergonomics for workers, better dust collection, and better organization of the shops have helped make it more efficient. Also, by finding ways to reduce the physical strain on workers and improve cleanliness and the comfort level, it naturally leads to workers being more productive and taking fewer sick days.

Mann said there is a much better safety culture among workers now than a year ago.

“Somewhere along the way we got kind of complacent in the work we did,” he said. “We were just about getting it out, no matter how unsafe it was, but now everybody is concerned about safety.”