How to track hundreds of devices scattered around the world?

The 62nd Maintenance Squadron’s aerospace ground equipment workshop began installing GPS trackers on its equipment in late April 2021. The workshop is now able to track approximately 220 of its 420 assets worldwide.

Previously, AGE Airmen manually tracked each piece of equipment using logs noting where an asset was dropped off, retrieved, and inspected.

“We had to rely on roadmaps and previous service inspection logs to determine the location of assets, and this is not always where they were last saved,” said the chief sergeant. Cameron Cofer, 62nd MXS AGE flight chief. “GPS is a dramatic improvement over the paper tracking system we use. “

Supporting ground-based aircraft systems, the AGE store has runway equipment at McChord Field, Gray Army Airfield, sites deployed around the world, and parts that sometimes travel with crews on missions and temporary assignments. GPS trackers can track equipment within a two to three meter radius.

The number of displacements undergone by the AGE equipment has been an important cause of this development.

In Cofer’s two and a half years at JBLM, there have been two misplaced tow bars on missions where, due to configuration and mission changes, crews had to leave them behind.

First, AGE had to determine the whereabouts of the asset and then coordinate its return from the air base where it was. Having the GPS trackers will speed up this process if it happens again.

“One of the huge benefits is obviously the time saved in finding equipment,” Cofer said. “We spent a little time crunching numbers and got about 3,000 hours per year which we save by just digging for materials. “

Currently, this idea is in the testing phase for the AGE career field. There is not yet a standardized process or system in the different units that have started testing the use of GPS trackers on their assets.

The management of the 62nd MXS AGE store hopes to see him make a career in the field.

“Since I’ve been here it has worked in our favor,” said Staff Sgt. Bryant Punzalan, 62nd MXS AGE Production Supervisor. “I think it’s going to be good for our career field, and if the career field embraces it, it will help sustainment.”

It took years to put this idea into practice, but the time-saving innovation at the 62nd MXS AGE Store is a game-changer.