Civil engineer provides IDEA that saves more than $10 million

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Andrea Salazar
  • 374th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan --  Recently, Tech. Sgt. Frank Uecker, 374th Civil Engineer Squadron pavement and construction craftsman, received an award through the Innovative Development through Employee Awareness program here Oct. 30.

In August 2012, Uecker submitted an idea to revamp the process of maintaining and repairing the Air Force's active airfield pavements. With the approved idea, the Air Force will save more than $10 million in airfield maintenance costs.

"For a contractor to seal Yokota's airfield it was going to cost approximately 1.2 million in the next year when the same work in-house it would be a fraction of the cost, approximately $125,000, with no impact to mission capability," Uecker said. "The goal would be to buy the necessary equipment and have training conducted Air Force-wide which would produce profound savings and benefits."

In May 2012, the Air Force launched the IDEA program along with the "Every Dollar Counts" campaign and received more than 11,000 cost-reducing ideas.

"The IDEA program gives Air Force military and civilian personnel the opportunity to provide innovative ideas regarding personnel, logistics, information technology, and installation support," said Naomi Kumagai, 374th Support Squadron management IDEA analyst. "By submitting ideas; participants help Airmen world-wide"