Collins Aerospace, Air Force and Defense Logistics Agency Team Receives Top Honors for Wheel and Brake Support Program

A combined Collins Aerospace, U.S. Air Force (USAF) and Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) team has received the 2020 Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Performance Based Logistics (PBL) Award, Subsystem Level. The government-industry team, which included members of the USAF 429th and 417th Supply Chain Management Squadrons (SCMS), worked together to implement an F-16 and C-130 PBL wheel and brake program that resulted in significant USAF cost savings, while maintaining 100 percent warfighter support. Collins Aerospace is a unit of Raytheon Technologies Corp.

By utilizing commercial best practices, the team developed an innovative process replacing traditional transactional spares contracting with a performance-based approach that resulted in a number of improvements, including:

• Implementation of F-16 carbon brake heat sink reutilization to achieve USAF savings of $2.39 million in year one (16.7 percent over the status quo) and overall total USG program savings of $87.8 million.
• Projected total USAF cost avoidance for both the F-16 and C-130 of $117 million for the life of the contract.
• Decreased C-130 Administrative Lead Time and Procurement Lead Times by 30 percent, from 255 to 180 days.
• Ensured the first Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness (FIAR) compliant USAF PBL, which maximizes the potential for successful financial statement audits.
• Drove change in USAF regulations, allowing access to USAF logistical systems to achieve superior forecasting in the supply chain.
• Achieved cost savings utilizing a PBL allowing Collins to level load production and capture costs savings.

“Collins Aerospace is committed to supporting the warfighter as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible,” said Ajay Mahajan, vice president, Landing Systems for Collins Aerospace. “By implementing a performance-based contracting mechanism with carbon reutilization technologies from our commercial business, we were able to partner together with the USAF and DLA to implement time-based product support solutions. We are honored to be part of the team that contributed to these achievements and look forward to continuing to deliver exceptional performance across each USAF platform we support.”