AFSO21 makes improvements for AF

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Tara A. Williamson
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan (AFNS) --  With the help of the Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century program, Airmen all around the globe have been coming up with ways to work smarter, not harder. And saving big bucks in the process.

The AFSO21 program is the Air Force's process improvement program to help make its mission run as efficient and agile as possible by giving all Airmen the chance to improve operations.

"AFSO21 gives (Airmen) the ability to look hard at the processes they do and to eliminate some of the waste present," said Rudy Gutierrez, the 18th Wing AFSO21 process manager.

At least 80 percent of any job done has one or more of the eight types of waste associated with it, he said.

Types of waste include defects, overproduction, wait-time-on data, approvals, responses and queues at offices, and excess inventory, to name a few.

Here, the latest AFSO21 concept has been applied to the 18th Operations Support Squadron after aircrew flight equipment members noticed the survival vests of pilots increased by eight pounds over the last eight years, Mr. Gutierrez said.

This concept reduced 18th Operations Group AFE man-hours by 19,000 a year, reduced the wing's AFE man-hours by 36,000 a year, cut inspection time 85 percent and saved Kadena AB more than $622,000 a year on replacement costs.

Tech. Sgt. Marcquis Simon, the AFE NCO in charge, briefed Kadena AB leaders to show how simple the process was for AFE to help pilots.

First, they identified the problem of the increase in weight and increased discomfort for pilots, he said. Next, equipment from the survival vests were moved to seat kits. This measure also eliminated duplicate equipment.

Finally, the impact on pilots was decreased fatigue, less chances of heat stress, increased mobility in the cockpit and an overall increase in pilot comfort, he said.

"The use of lean concepts such as the eight wastes has been in existence since AFSO21 started around 2007," Mr. Gutierrez said. "Now, we've also partnered with the wing Manpower Office so event team members can use the results of their events to submit to the Innovative Development through Employee Awareness, or IDEA, program, which can have personal financial rewards."