AFSO 21 tools reveal inefficiencies, streamline procedures

Published Oct. 9, 2006
By Joe Wiles
92nd ARW Public Affairs

FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Members of Fairchild Air Force Base's operations and maintenance communities spent this week in the education center working out a better process for scheduling flying missions.

They were participating in an Air Force Smart Operations 21 event, under the guidance of the base's AFSO 21 consultant, Bill Long.

Part of the first day was spent learning to use AFSO 21 improvement tools. "We follow a systematic approach to problem solving," said Mr. Long.

The scheduling of aircraft to fly training and real-world missions involves many people in different organizations. "Many times, when working with different groups that have the same objective, we may not fully understand what each group needs or expects," said Mr. Long. "Getting them all together and opening up lines of communication is critical to understanding the entire process."

One of the tools for improvement involves mapping out the process. On large sheets of paper hung on the wall, the group broke the process down into individual steps represented by brightly colored pieces of paper.

"We created a story board of what currently happens to schedule a flight," said Mr. Long. "It gives us a graphic picture of what everyone does."

The mapping often reveals redundancies in the process, providing easy savings of time, resources and sometimes money. "The mapping includes pinpointing value added and non-value added steps in the process," said Mr. Long.

As the group studies the process, they often find ways to save time. "Taking an hour out of the process is not just a one-for-one savings," Mr. Long pointed out. "If we can eliminate a one-hour meeting for five people, we have a hard time savings of five hours. But there are always hidden factors.

"For each of those five people, there was preparation time before the meeting, travel time to and from the meeting, and readjust to the workplace when they are back to their desk. We usually find that hidden factors multiply the savings by at least seven."

Improvements in the scheduling process at Fairchild can potentially affect other bases throughout the tanker world. "By keeping other bases in mind as we build a new scheduling process we are more apt to build one that can be leveraged across the tanker community," said Mr. Long.

With that in mind, representatives from Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., and McConnell AFB, Kan., were invited to participate in this AFSO 21 event. "By getting inputs from other tanker bases, we improve our chances of building a new process that can be used by other units," said Mr. Long.

As the new process was refined, several mock tests were conducted by the group. "There is always room for improvement. Once we build an ideal process, there will continue to be refinements," he pointed out.

In coming weeks, the group will present their new process to wing senior leaders for approval. Some elements will be implemented immediately. Others will require more study and adjustment. But the end result will save time, resources and money, said Mr. Long.

"There are a lot of eyes on this event. The emphasis to make it a success is extremely high. We want to leverage what we learned and apply it throughout AMC," he said.