coordinating department administrative and security responsibilities with other departments and divisions as required;

effecting proper distribution of nontechnical information and publications; and

maintaining necessary personnel assignment records for the department.

Maintenance/Material Control

The maintenance officer may consider the tasks performed by maintenance/material control to be a staff function. However, the maintenance/ material control officer exercises authority in a line position between the maintenance officer and the production divisions.

The maintenance/material control officer is directly responsible to the maintenance officer for the overall productive effort and material support of the department. To separate the functions performed by maintenance/material control, it is divided into two work centers - one for the maintenance control functions and one for the material control functions. These are discussed further in the following paragraphs.

MAINTENANCE CONTROL WORK CENTER. - The space in which the personnel of this work center perform their functions is commonly referred to as maintenance control, or the maintenance control office.

The maintenance control office is the nerve center of the entire maintenance department. As head of this office, the maintenance/material control officer directs the production divisions with the assistance of the maintenance control chief. The maintenance/material control officer exercises control and coordination of the production divisions to ensure prompt movement of aircraft, parts, and materials to promote harmony and cooperation. This officer maintains liaison with the supporting activity to ensure that the department's productive capacity is kept compatible with workload requirements.

In discharging these responsibilities, the personnel assigned to maintenance control perform the following functions:

Plan and schedule aircraft through all phases of assigned maintenance.

Initiate maintenance actions to the work centers for scheduled and unscheduled maintenance as required, and assign priorities and completion times.

Perform progress checks on work assigned.

Maintain current aircraft status on the visual information display system (VIDS) board and keep cognizant divisions and work centers informed of the status of aircraft and related equipment.

Prepare necessary aircraft parking plans and movement schedules.

Maintain aircraft logs according to current directives.

Ensure that maintenance instructions are prepared when required, and provide the necessary control to ensure compliance by work centers concerned.

Assign a job control number for each maintenance action.

Receive completed and processed source documents from the quality assurance/analysis division and file for historical purposes.

Take necessary actions for reporting aircraft accounting data, aircraft engine accounting data, and other required reports.

In the final analysis, maintenance control personnel plan, schedule, and provide positive control of all maintenance performed on or in support of assigned aircraft. Most of the tasks performed in maintenance control are within the scope of the AZ rating; therefore, for the most part, this work center is composed of AZs.

MATERIAL CONTROL CENTER (MCC). - To maintain an effective aircraft maintenance program, a cooperative working relationship must exist between production and supply. Effective maintenance of complex weapons systems cannot be accomplished without an adequate material supply program. A material control center is provided in the organizational maintenance department to act as liaison between the maintenance department and the local supply activity.