LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Patty Soto, 47th Maintenance Directorate lead supply technician and approving official, was chosen by wing leadership to be the “XLer” of the week, for the week of Oct. 29, 2018, at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas.
The “XLer” award is given to those who consistently make outstanding contributions to their unit and the Laughlin mission.
Soto is responsible for maintaining a 15,000-line inventory, keeping flawless records that are key to Laughlin’s maintenance resource planning.
“Maintaining an inventory to support 600 personnel and 200 aircraft is challenging,” she said. “Decisions must be made on what to carry in stock versus what to order.”
She made the call on $900,000 worth of supply orders that help keep Laughlin maintainers in the fight and able to produce mission capable aircraft.
“We were able to order equipment and tools we have needed; assets critical to aircraft maintenance,” she said. “We required over 700 manual files and a computer based inventory system to track the orders placed.”
She completed the documentation needed to go through with purchasing T-1A Jayhawk aircraft jacks, allowing XL maintainers to be more productive.
“T-1 aircraft maintenance was being impacted [by the lack of equipment],” she said. “We worked with Air Education and Training Command to diagnose the problem and decided more jacks would help production and allow coverage for aircraft on the flying schedule. The remedy proved successful, corrected the delays and improved T-1 maintenance time.”
Soto also revised the inventory tracking system in place, cutting back the time it takes to deliver orders to customers.
“We revised the internal structure of the inventory tracking system which enabled easier identification of the orders when received,” she said. “The packing slips could be identified to the packing orders faster, saving time for receipts and issues.”
For her hard work and meticulous attention to detail, Patty Soto was awarded the “XLer of the week” by wing leadership. Although she works hard for her team, she finds joy in the people she works with.
“I love this job,” she said. “It is a challenge every day, allows me to interact with hundreds of maintenance employees and gives me a tremendous sense of accomplishment and satisfaction knowing I can contribute directly to Laughlin’s mission.”