Air Force Materiel Command has unveiled “how” it plans to shift its organizational structure from 12 to five centers, but the “why” continues to be unclear.

The parent agency for Robins Air Force Base and the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center said on Friday that AFMC Commander Gen. Donald Hoffman has approved an implementation governance structure to guide “development, coordination, integration, tracking and monitoring of milestones.”

According to an AFMC press release, the structure will also ensure the revamped command reaches initial operational capability by Oct. 1, 2012, and full operational capability by mid-2013.

The command said last November it would make the changes, including elimination of air logistics center and aerospace sustainment directorate staffs at Robins and at similar bases in Oklahoma and Utah.

Under the realignment, the local management and industrial center will lose 193 civilian jobs along with its two-star, major general command slot. Also, the 402nd Maintenance Wing, the industrial heart of the center and installation, will become an air logistics complex headed by a one-star, brigadier general.

As a result, oversight for traditional air logistics center functions will go elsewhere. The local air logistics complex commander along with the 78th Air Base Wing will report to a yet-to-be-formed Air Force Sustainment Center at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. The weapon system program management offices now in the aerospace sustainment directorate will take their orders from a program executive officer at either Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, or Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.

The Friday statement said an AFMC council, chaired by Hoffman and including headquarters directors and center commanders, would form the top tier of management in the governance structure.

An executive steering group, chaired by AFMC Vice Commander Lt. Gen. C.D. Moore II, and five center team leads will complete the hierarchy.

“Achieving the five center construct’s initial operational capability will require dedicated leadership and a team effort,” Moore is quoted in the AFMC press release. “Restructuring the command with no interruption to normal mission execution is essential, but it’s a daunting task.”

Moore added that the focus of the tiered team will be on center team leads “identifying, resolving and codifying critical pathways, issues, interdependencies and processes.”

The AFMC plan has been roundly criticized, particularly for its lack of specifics and substantiation for claims to create greater efficiency and productivity.

A congressional delegation, headed by members from Utah, initially charged that the restructuring violated federal law since no business case analysis was conducted.

Others have said that savings of $109 million annually are minimal when compared to the major changes the plan would bring in organizational structure and lines of authority.

How the plan might bring greater efficiency has also been questioned since it removes direct oversight and “horizontal control” from the local installation.

To this point, including Friday’s statement, AFMC has refused to elaborate on the “why” of the reorganization and to provide detailed analysis of how efficiency will improve under the new structure.

Hoffman, in announcing the restructuring plan, would only say, “This is an opportunity to do things better and replace a culture of perceived endless money with one of efficiency, savings and restraint.”