AFSO21 posed to transform Air Force

  • Published
  • By Col. Tom Sharpy
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing vice commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  As the vice wing commander I have the honor of representing the wing commander on many of his councils. Of all the base councils I participate in, the council that excites me the most is the Air Force Smart Operations for the 21 Century Executive Steering Committee. The ESC is comprised of all deputy group commanders and the members of the 60th Air Mobility Wing AFSO 21 office. Together, these committed individuals help Col. Steve Arquiette, 60th AMW commander, chart the course for transformation by examining our existing processes and instituting process improvements to make them better--and to me, that is exciting! 

The goal of AFSO 21 is the continual improvement of our operations and the elimination of wasteful activities within those operations. The forum of the ESC reviews numerous ideas that have been presented to the AFSO 21 Office. These ideas are evaluated on how much potential savings they present in areas of manpower, time, and/or money as well as the impact upon the unit, wing or Air Force community. Once our Lean professionals have identified the processes that are good candidates for Rapid Improvement Events, they rank them, in order of the magnitude of each process, and prioritize them for further study by our AFSO 21 experts. 

Using Lean Methodology, units conduct a RIE to evaluate the entire process. Over the course of the event, the team conducts in-depth analysis by breaking down the process step by step and identifying which steps add value to the process and which do not. The key to this evaluation is identifying which steps are valuable in the eyes of the customer and which are wasteful. As the team maps the steps of a process, some of the steps will identify waste for the people who accomplish these processes. It is amazing how many of our processes have unnecessary steps, existing simply "because that's the way we've always done it." (Sound familiar?) 

Upon identifying and eliminating the waste from the process, the team will redesign the process with the end result being a more efficient process, maximizing manpower, space and resources: the key to working smarter not harder. 

How do we prioritize you may ask--great question! We have aligned our goals in conjunction with Air Mobility Command's Break Through Objectives--which are 1) Within five years, increase system velocity and precision to deliver the right effect to the right place at the right time...every time. 2) Within three years, transform the enterprise to slash waste in our process to meet our mission. 3) Within five years, create a self-sustaining continuous process improvement culture throughout AMC. Each wing within AMC evaluated their processes to identify improvement activities that, if re-engineered, can impact one or more of these BTO's. Every process that we improve at Travis has the potential to impact MAJCOM-level and beyond, enhancing the combat capability that we provide to the war fighter. 

Does it sound like a daunting task? The ESC needs your help in identifying processes for improvement within your own work centers that the AFSO 21 office could lead you to streamline. I promise you that we will diligently investigate every suggestion submitted, working to eliminate waste and redistribute the workforce to the tasks that need help. 

Please share your thoughts with your chain of command, and then call the AFSO 21 office at 424-4581; or use the AFSO 21 link at the bottom of our web site. https://w3.travis.af.mil/