Section I. THE SHOP
1. MISSION:
MAINTENANCE OF EQUIPMENT
The purpose of maintenance has not changed since warfare began. It is to keep the equipment in the
hands of military forces operable, and thereby maintain the forces themselves in a combat-ready
condition. The importance of maintenance, however, has increased enormously and will continue to
increase at an accelerating rate as more and more new items of communications-electronics equipment
and weapons systems go into the field. The Army realizes that field use of equipment causes equipment
to break down, wear out, and be damaged. And whenever that happens, a maintenance shop is called
upon to fix the equipment if it can. If the equipment can be repaired by a local shop, usually the
necessary repair work will be done and the equipment will be returned to its user. Thus, the shop
performs a service--maintenance--for its customers. Maintenance is a service that includes anything that
is done to keep equipment serviceable, and anything that is done to restore equipment to serviceable
condition if it has become unserviceable. It includes repair, overhaul, servicing, inspection, testing,
modification, cannibalization, and disposal. Maintenance is one of the primary functions of logistics.
The maintenance shop is a logistical activity whose essential mission is to maintain equipment. As a
repairman or mechanic, you will be assigned to a maintenance shop of some type. The shop to which you
are assigned may confine its work to equipment that belongs only to your unit, and its mission would be
termed organizational maintenance. Or you may be assigned to a shop that does work for a number of
using units or for all using units located within a particular geographic area, in which case your shop's
mission would be known as direct support maintenance and the shop would return the repaired items of
equipment to the using units. Often the organizational maintenance shops and the direct support
maintenance shops are mobile shops using shelters mounted on trucks and sometimes using tents or other
temporary structures. Or, instead, your assignment may be to a shop that is pretty much permanent as to
its location. Such a shop would be a shop whose mission is that of either general support maintenance or
depot maintenance. Usually, in general support and depot shops, items that have been repaired will be
returned to a supply storage facility where they will be available for issue through supply channels. In
any event, with your MOS pertaining to some type of equipment, you can expect to be assigned to an
activity or unit whose mission is to perform equipment maintenance.
2. TEAMWORK TO ACCOMPLISH THE MISSION
a. As a member of the shop organization, you have a significant part in accomplishing the workload
imposed upon the shop. The shop is not a one-man show. Instead, it is a workplace where the work gets
done as a team effort. Each member of the shop, like the member of any team, is expected to carry his
share of the total effort or workload. The shop is organized so as to distribute its total workload among its
various elements or members. Ordinarily an officer or a noncommissioned officer is in charge of the
shop. Your immediate supervisor may be a commissioned officer, a warrant officer, a noncommissioned
officer, a senior specialist, or even an Army civilian employee, depending upon the nature of the shop
organization and the particular position you occupy in the shop. At any rate, your immediate supervisor
651
3
Previous Page
