Travis focuses on AFSO21 Published June 21, 2012 By Tyler Grimes 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The only constant is change. This is a commonly held sentiment by many in today's Air Force. What leads credence to this idea is the ever-evolving technological and economic landscape, our total force must be able to face the challenges of the current mission at hand while staying prepared for the mission ahead. To deal with the evolution of these issues, the Air Force has developed the Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century program. The program is designed to continuously improve processes by indentifying and eliminating waste, said David Kroll, 60th Air Mobility Wing AFSO21 master process owner. According to Kroll, waste can take many forms such as redundant tasks, practices that are not standardized and excess inventory. What these various forms of waste do is drain manpower and resources that are vital to mission success by causing work stoppage. "Waiting is considered waste," Kroll said. "It's an unneeded action and adds no value to the process." To tackle the problem, Kroll educates Airmen on how to implement techniques to eliminate waste in their work centers. One method he teaches is the "6S" system, which illustrates a six-step process to improve productivity. The first step is to sort the work center by going through all of their items keeping what they need and disposing of the rest. The second and third steps involve straightening up the space and then cleaning it to make the space shine. The next step is to make the center safe by eliminating possible hazards and bringing other potential safety issues to light. The fifth step is to standardization of the work place by assigning "6S" responsibilities and integrating these into their regular duties then grade and rewards them for "6S" achievements. The final step is to sustain the process through training the Airmen to uniformly follow this process thereby ensuring continuous improvement. "Work isn't static," he said. "Technology, manpower and funding change so we should always be thinking about what we can do to make a process better. It's important to show the Airmen what AFSO21 is about because they are the ones who are doing the labor and know what goes into doing each task, they are subject matter expects." In addition to educating the Airmen, Gen. Norton Schwartz, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, issued guidance on the importance of senior leadership involvement in the AFSO21 program through a 2009 memorandum to senior-level enlisted, officer and civilian ranks. "The Air Force has committed to AFSO21- a critical and enduring journey of innovation that we must all embrace across our total force," the memorandum states. "This is a fundamental transformation regarding how Airmen perform their daily duties." At Travis, senior leadership from both wings attended the two-day senior leaders course Monday and Tuesday to learn strategic management tools and skills to ensure continuous improvement of Air Force organizations and resources. Beyond AFSO21 education, Kroll holds rapid improvement events where he investigates issues raised by the different groups and units to determine if any processes can be improved. For example, Kroll's team hosted a RIE in 2011 for the 60th Maintenance Group to find a way to save time when working on the KC-10 Extender. "They realized that the aircraft was just sitting in the hanger waiting to be serviced," he said. "Because the maintainers on the other side of the flightline weren't aware that they were able to work on it sooner. Before we looked at the whole process, the total aircraft inspection took more than 8 days but after the RIE, they were able to do it in 5.5 days." Kroll stresses by studying work processes, they can become standardized and when that occurs they can also be measured and duplicated. "My job is to help the Air Force make constant improvements to move the mission forward today and tomorrow," he said.