yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) (06/22/91)
Bruce Buckingham
407/867-2468 June 21, 1991
KSC RELEASE NO. 76 - 91
ATLANTIS BREAKS RECORD FOR OPF PROCESSING FLOW
When the orbiter Atlantis rolled over to the Vehicle
Assembly Building from the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF)
earlier this week, it bested the post-Challenger record for
shortest time spent in the OPF by 10 days.
Atlantis first entered OPF bay 2 on April 19, 1991,
following completion of the STS-37 mission. It spent only 59 days
there being processed for its next Shuttle mission, STS-43,
targeted for launch in late July of this year.
The previous OPF record also was held by Atlantis during
processing for mission STS-36.
"We have had an extremely good OPF flow," said Conrad Nagel,
NASA's vehicle flow director for Atlantis. "The hardware was very
good to us and we had very few problems during processing."
Originally, managers had hoped for a 65 day flow at best,
but the relatively small number of problems encountered allowed
workers to get a jump on the major tasks at hand and shorten the
schedule.
The Task Team Leader concept also was a contributing factor.
Under this program, specific individuals are responsible for
coordinating activities, getting the necessary paper work ready
prior to the scheduled job, and tracking the work until the job
is complete.
"The program was a real asset. It made a definite impact to
our processing flow," Nagel said. "Every day when we came out of
the scheduling meeting we all knew what had to be done during the
next 24 hours. We could go plan our work and be sure it was going
to be accomplished."
The level of excitement grew over the past two or three
weeks as workers and managers both realized the significance of
what was about to happen. "It jelled our team a little bit more,"
Nagel said. "Success always does."
In reality, Nagel admitted, there is always the need to
anticipate a certain number of problems in processing the orbiter
for launch. But with this flow, everything was well under
control. With the few problems that did occur, workers were able
to focus on them and not hold up the rest of the scheduled work.
"We proved 59 days is very achievable. Once you have done
it, it's not as difficult the next time around. We gained a lot
of confidence here and we demonstrated to ourselves that we can
do this job efficiently and do it consistently."
Nagel said there are still improvements to be made.
"I feel we can clean up the flow even more. We can roll out
with not only the shortest turn around possible, but also with
all the work completed, all the paper closed, and with all the
requirements met. I don't want to come out of the OPF on a wing
and a prayer," Nagel said. "I want the spaceship to come out of
the OPF as it is suppose to come out -- ready to fly."