Dover AFB reservist initiates, assists with AFSO 21 overseas

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Veronica A. Aceveda
  • 512th Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  Dover Air Force Base maintenance initiatives with Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century are making their way to Rota Naval Air Station thanks to the efforts of a 512th Airlift Wing reservist.
 
Senior Master Sgt. Bryan Ford, 512th Maintenance Group, went to Spain in December to work with the 725th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron to jumpstart their AFSO 21 program upon the request of the Lt. Col. Gary Grape, the unit's commander. 

"At the core of AFSO 21 are continuous process improvement initiatives such as Lean, Six Sigma and others," said Sergeant Ford. "It's a particular way of thinking about, seeing and improving the way work gets done." 

During that four-day stint in December, Sergeant Ford taught Colonel Grape's entire executive staff and the majority of his mechanics, about 100 people, on some lessons learned of the AFSO 21 process, including how different units embrace the Lean initiative at different speeds. 

The idea for this endeavor came about in August 2006 when Sergeant Ford led a team of 14 reservists on a two-week deployment, supporting an Enroute mission at Rota NAS. Enroute stations such as Rota do not have assigned aircraft but do have a lot of transient aircraft, including planes from Dover AFB. While working there, the deployed team chief said he noticed how their support equipment was located at the opposite end of the flight from where they used it; whereas, at home station the equipment is positioned as close as possible. 

Sergeant Ford said he spoke to a quality assurance inspector and the maintenance unit's superintendent about how Dover AFB was using AFSO 21 and Lean principles to identify and eliminate waste in many of its processes. 

"As with any new program, the reception was cool at best; but, the foundation for an ongoing relationship had started," he said. 

A year later, Sergeant Ford led another team on a similar mission to Rota NAS, but this time he came armed with some educational tools from Dover AFB's AFSO 21 Phase 1 course, which teaches the basic principles of AFSO 21. 

He provided that initial training to a token group of leaders. Unfortunately, he said it appeared they were not equipped to sustain the change, because only a few of their members seemed to be on board with the culture change. 

However, he did plant the idea for improvement; and, later that year, the 725th AMXS commander asked the Dover AFSO21 teacher to assist with the implementation of AFSO 21 at Rota NAS. 

"This time was profoundly different," said Sergeant Ford. "I could tell by the interest, they were ready for change." 

One of the tenets of Lean transformation is the customer-supplier relationship. In the aircraft maintenance arena, Sergeant Ford said it makes perfect sense to have a relationship with the Enroute stations. 

"Everything we do here maintenance-wise is observed by the next link in the chain at Rota (NAS); they see the direct results of the processes we have here at Dover," he said. "So, it's important for us to exchange information, but we need to speak the same language in a sense -- the Lean language. 

"It's intriguing to see how the subtle changes in the way Dover does business can dramatically affect how we maintain and sustain reliability at the enroute location," said Senior Master Sgt. Dan O'Brien, the AFSO 21 program manager at Rota NAS. 

Due to the vision and persistence of Sergeant Ford, a groundbreaking AFSO 21 alliance between Dover AFB and Rota NAS is underway.