Air Force officials outline efficiencies processes Published March 30, 2011 By Master Sgt. Amaani Lyle Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- In compliance with Department of Defense efficiency guidance, Air Force officials confirmed plans here March 29 to implement fiscal 2012 budget proposals that shift dollars and people from overhead and support functions to modernization and warfighting areas. During testimony to members of the Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Undersecretary of the Air Force Erin Conaton said Air Force officials have worked hard to meet the efficiencies targets established by DOD guidelines and are reviewing their processes from top to bottom. "We looked at all categories of support activities from installations to sustainment to acquisition overhead," Conaton said. "We also looked at how we do business and areas where we changed our business process to become more efficient." The undersecretary said she and her team will continue to examine strategies to accomplish the Air Force's portion of the DOD's approximately $100 billion in efficiency targets and to report on progress to senior leaders. In a separate interview, David Tillotson III, the director of the Air Force Office of Business Transformation, provided further details on Air Force efficiencies efforts. "The Air Force efficiencies goal is $33.3 billion over the next 5-6 years," he said. "The action is to find things we can do more efficiently that allow us to move resources from support to mission-critical activities." Tillotson explained that the service also will analyze support and services functions to see if they can be performed differently or discarded altogether. The concept, according to Tillotson, is not new to the Air Force. In recent years, officials consolidated manpower and personnel, finance management and other functional organizations. These consolidations enabled swifter growth of such programs as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and remotely piloted aircraft to meet combatant commanders' demand. "Because seeking and finding these efficiencies kept us from having to reduce modernization programs to pay corporate bills, we were able to preserve ongoing investments such as the production capacities on the MQ-9 Reaper, an essential Joint warfighter need," he said. Air Force officials plan to reduce information technology infrastructure costs by 25 percent over the future years defense program as another of the efficiency initiatives. "We intend to consolidate data centers and telephone switch operations and find more effective ways to deploy computer systems using commercial standard models," Tillotson said. "This will result in less cost of hardware and contractors who support those activities and reduce the amount of work currently done manually." In the areas of fuel and energy efficiency, Tillotson lauded Air Mobility Command leaders for making great strides in better flight and mission load planning. "AMC demonstrates what we can do to reduce the consumption of energy and still achieve the mission," he said. "The result is they get more delivery per gallon of fuel expended than they have in the past, and that's one of the efficiency areas we're seeking to achieve." Tillotson noted the Air Force's new energy standards would also allow installation buildings to be more efficiently run and feature better insulation, heating and cooling systems. "These are but a few ways that we can reduce the overall consumption of energy at a facility level," he said. Airmen, he added, play a critical ongoing role in identifying the Air Force's efficiencies. "Airmen who have good ideas about better ways to do things should participate in programs by which they can put forth efficiencies recommendations," he said, highlighting the Air Force Innovative Development through Employee Awareness, or IDEA, program as one such avenue to share process improvements. By the same token, Air Force leaders may require Airmen of all grades to adjust to efficiency challenges by embracing new business procedures and practices. "I would encourage people to take an open mind to the possibility of needing a new skill set in a new location, since part of efficiencies involves considering whether Airmen and civilians are doing the kind of work we need them to do," Tillotson said. Tillotson asserts the need for change and prioritization is as much an issue of national security as financial security. In light of the ever-widening deficit, the interest alone on such debt affects money in the national budget, he added. "It's the taxpayer's money; we should spend it well, and wisely," he said. "The nation needs us to get the most we can out of every dollar with which we're entrusted."