ATTACHMENT A.docx

STATEMENT OF NEED

Establish a Center of Excellence (CoE) for Corrosion and Finish Training focused on educating, training, and certifying qualified, proficient maintainers capable of performing corrosion identification, inspection, prevention, mitigation, repair, and restoration. Currently there are two possible alternatives:

Alternative 1: The contractor will have the capacity and capability to design, develop and sustain corrosion courses. Design, produce, and sustain stricken aircraft as training devices. Teach all courses using the government-approved curriculum. The contractor with Alternative 1 will provide the facilities, tools, materials, equipment, and consumables. This is a turnkey approach to providing all products and services needed to output proficient performers.

Alternative 2: The contractor will perform all activities in Alternative 1 except will teach at a government provided facility (or facilities).

BACKGROUND

A Human Performance Assessment was conducted at three Naval Aviation Maintenance sites. The purpose of the assessment was to identify the barriers to performance for corrosion prevention, treatment, and repair. The team, interviewed 578 maintainers. The results uncovered the following corrosion issues which directly point towards process, behavior, attitude, management, and leadership barriers:

a. 90% do not look for corrosion during routine maintenance

b. 43% do not document corrosion during routine maintenance

c. 31% do not document corrosion during a special inspection

d. 83% not performing Pre-Lubrication

e. 42% not in wash configuration

f. 59% use trash bags to cover components

g. 42% not using canopy covers

h. 60% not using suction cups

i. 82% not using correct CPC

j. 87% not wet sealing, or rarely wet sealing fasteners

k. 35% rushed by Maintenance Control

In addition to these barriers, there were also issues in the categories of tools, technical publications, Support Equipment, Supply, and Training. The design of OPNAV Instruction 4790 Naval Aviation Maintenance Program (NAMP) approved courses was determined to be lacking and incapable of graduating proficient performers, with the requisite skills and knowledge needed to perform corrosion cleaning, inspection, treatment, mitigation, repair, and restoration. A gap analysis also was conducted to identify aircraft specific corrosion training for 15 platforms. The gap analysis revealed little to no corrosion training in any of the fielded courses supporting a platform.

As a barrier, training is a contributor if there is a documented lack of knowledge and skill. During the conduct of this assessment, the team also evaluated current corrosion courses approved by the NAMP and identified corrosion training in support of a platform.

Using various data sources of data including the data mentioned above, the Corrosion Management Board (CMB) members concluded a new set of aircraft corrosion and paint courses are required.