92 



and implemented the tracking of MScR expenditures on a continuing basis and now 

 conducts annual agencywide maintenance workshops. 



Our most recent initiative has been the establishment of an Agency "benchmark- 

 ing" team to apply selected Total Quality Management principles in support of the 

 program. Surveys have been conducted of a cross section of private sector businesses 

 and visits have been recently completed at the corporate headquarters and laborato- 

 ries of the 3M and Du Pont companies. Future benchmarking is also planned with 

 other government agencies. 



Maintenance and Repair 



NASA's funding of M&R, expressed as a percentage of CRV, has progressively 

 increased from 1.7 percent in FY 1989 to 2.2 percent in FY 1992. The projected ex- 

 penditure for FY 1994, subject to final passage of the NASA budget, is 2.6 percent of 

 the CRV. Although these figures are for the entire NASA physical plant, the Research 

 and Development facilities are in the same range. The total M6cR effort was approxi- 

 mately $313 million in FY 1992. 



Maintenance and center funded repairs are funded by the NASA Program Offices 

 from their Research and Development, and Space Flight, Control and Data Commu- 

 nications budgets. The Center level funded portion of the MScR effort was approxi- 

 mately $243 million and the Construction of Facilities (CoF) funded repairs included 

 $70 million. 



Backlog of Maintenance and Repair 



The Office of Space Flight (OSF) performed detailed facilities condition assess- 

 ments during 1991 and 1992 at NASA's Space Flight Centers- Kennedy Space Cen- 

 ter, Johnson Space Center, Marshall Space Flight Center and Stennis Space Center. 

 An approximate $831 million backlog of maintenance and repair requirements was 

 identified. This estimate represents a comprehensive assessment of all Space Flight 

 facilities using a standard industry- based, multi-disciplined approach. 



The Office of Aeronautics performed a similar assessment of NASA's Aeronautics 

 Research Centers at the Langley, Lewis, and Ames Centers. They identified a roughly 

 $500 million backlog of maintenance and repair. 



The remaining $300 million of a total estimated backlog of $1.6 billion was em- 

 pirically calculated from the CRV for the Goddard Space Flight Center and the Jet 

 Propulsion Laboratory. The estimated backlog for the Research and Development 

 facilities only is $7 1 8 niiilion. 



Impacts on Research and Development Activities 



In the majority of cases over the years, the actual impact of the condition of facili- 

 ties on the Agency's Research and Development activities has been delays or the ne- 

 cessity for conducting activities in an inconvenient and inefficient manner. However, it 

 has normally been the exception that NASA has been unable to perform Research and 

 Development activities as a direct result of the condition of facilities. The following 

 illustrates some individual site experiences and observations regarding maintenance 

 and repairs of major research and test facilities. 



Langley Research Center 



Langley Research Center (LaRC) is NASA's oldest Center. Many of it's facilities 

 are over 50 years old and some are 75 years old. They contain numerous original 

 components and systems that have become obsolete. Despite the age of LaRC 

 research facilities, their excellent maintenance program has kept many obsolete 

 facility components in operable condition. However, as replacement parts become 

 less available, the equipment becomes more difficult to keep at full operational 

 status. Critical spare parts are not available for many facilities and failure of one- 

 of-a-kind equipment can require a long time to repair or replace. 

 Li 1989, NASA implemented a structured muki-year aeronautical facilities revitali- 

 zation program within the CoF program to restore and modernize aeronautical 



