Liberty Wing embarks on AFSO21 journey of process improvement

  • Published
  • By Capt. Marnee A.C. Losurdo
  • 512th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  "Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things."
- Peter F. Drucker, American educator, writer and management consultant

In the spirit of efficiency and effectiveness, 512th Airlift Wing leaders met June 22-24 to identify wing processes and programs that could be improved as part of Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century, or AFSO21.

Used in the Air Force since the late 1990's, AFSO21 is a process improvement effort to generate efficiencies to improve combat capability. The goal is to get Airmen to focus on the important aspects of their jobs while eliminating unnecessary actions that don't enhance the mission and waste time, resources and money.

"The objective of the June meeting was to establish an improvement schedule of events on issues that matter most across the wing; issues that tend to be a thorn in our sides," said Lt. Col. James Johann, 512th AW process manager and AFSO21 lead.

"This (meeting) is about identifying highly important things that are not necessarily urgent day to day but are a source of constant aggravation people have and take up a lot of time because the root cause of the problem was never identified or corrected," said Ward Abbett, lead facilitator for the AFSO21 event.

Management identified seven areas for improvement to include getting enough fitness assessment slots for the wing's 1,800 reservists, ensuring the wing's travel vouchers are free of errors to ensure timely payment, and decreasing the amount of late enlisted and officer performance reports.

Teams will be assembled to tackle these issues in Rapid Improvement Events scheduled over the next 12 months, kicking off in September with the fitness program.

An RIE is a one to five-day event where subject matter experts meet to analyze the cause of a problem, identify potential solutions and establish an implementation plan for the wing.

A unit member doesn't have to be part of the RIE to make a difference. Wing leaders also encourage unit members to submit ideas.

"Both civilians and military members can make a difference as we can all provide insight on how to eliminate waste in our core processes," said Col. Randal L. Bright, 512th AW commander. "Wing members can route their potential solutions through their supervisor and chain of command or run it by the AFSO21 Lead Lieutenant Colonel Johann."

The wing is still in the beginning steps of a long journey that never really ends. AFSO21 is about continuous process improvement. Wing leadership will revisit and evaluate these identified areas for improvement every 12 to 18 months.

"We haven't built the foundation for the house yet, but we have picked the location and have the plans," said Colonel Bright. "If our wing members feel some kind of impact from improvements brought about by this process then it's a victory."