MAXWELL AFB-GUNTER ANNEX, Ala. --
The Integrated Maintenance Data System (IMDS) and Maintenance Scheduling Module (MSM) have continued supporting system users by sending training teams from Maxwell AFB-Gunter Annex, Ala. to educate various Major Commands on the Central Database and MSM programs.
This past quarter, training teams guided an additional 50 users across United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), totaling over 200 users worldwide in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024.
Each training team’s primary objective is to give field users hands-on training, share important information about upcoming program changes, including the ongoing efforts to migrate to a single base-level maintenance information system, Field Maintenance Command and Control (FMxC2), and allow the field an opportunity to provide feedback or concerns they have with the application.
Each team aims to enhance user relationships and develop the most innovative applications to support critical decisions and ever-evolving challenges in meeting rigorous mission requirements facing Air Force leaders today.
During FY 2024, IMDS and MSM completed several virtual training sessions at Maxwell AFB- Gunter Annex, Ala., and traveled 27,707 miles across the globe to conduct numerous in- person training sessions and collaborate with users at Langley AFB, Va., Whiteman AFB, Mo., Kadena AB, Japan, and Elmendorf AFB, Alaska.
IMDS and MSM rounded out the FY by conducting training at Lakenheath AB, UK, Spangdahlem AB, Germany, and Aviano AB, Italy. During the two-day training sessions at each location, IMDS provided comprehensive training on unique IMDS processes such as Aircraft Transfer, Status and Inventory, Debrief, Organization and Work Center Management, and Equipment Statuses.
Meanwhile, MSM provided extensive training on File Extracts, Time Change and Special Inspection Matrices, and proper procedures to maintain the unit’s Aircraft within the system.
On the second day, users at each base provided training teams with a wide variety of questions to receive real-time feedback and solutions to problems they were having. IMDS and MSM users were also able to suggest improvements to the systems to enhance user Quality of Life and increase overall user satisfaction.
After the training teams returned to the home station, suggestions were evaluated for feasibility of implementation and mission impact with the larger team and those suggestions were written up as agile stories, to be refined by the program teams, developed, and implemented in releases to improve the programs and enhance user satisfaction.
In addition to the scheduled training, maintainers using Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability for Pods (RAMPOD) were given the opportunity to learn how to use IMDS. As the Air Force continues to implement its Operational Imperatives, RAMPOD will be subsumed into IMDS to reduce duplicated functionality across mission systems. All RAMPOD users will be trained on how to use IMDS by the estimated subsumption date in March 2025.
The teams were also able to visit various work centers to provide troubleshooting assistance to users. Normally, the process of sending problem descriptions to the teams takes two to three business days to get a solution to a user’s problem, so this opportunity allowed field users to get instantaneous feedback and solutions to their issues.