'ONE Suit Pro' IDEA saves Air Force money

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Anne Gathua
  • 17th Training Wing Public Affairs
GOODFELLOW AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) --  Saving money and improving quality of service and efficiency in the workplace were the motivating factors behind the "ONE Suit Pro" idea that won awards for the members of the 17th Civil Engineer Squadron, Innovative Development through Employee Awareness program team recently.

The idea submitted to the Air Force IDEA program was to replace the base fire department's current Hazardous Materials Level-A and Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear suits. The suits are used by first responders to enter immediate-danger-to-life and health-contaminated or toxic environments.

The team members, all from the 17th CES, included Olin Malone, Jeff Wilkins, Cindy Bentfield and Christopher Wright, all of whom played a part in the success of the idea.

"We conducted research of the different models of suits available in the open market and came across a suit that was one of a kind," Mr. Wilkins said. "The suit was the only one that covered both National Fire Protection Association Code 1991 for HazMat Level-A suits and NFPA Code 1994 for CBRN Terrorism Incidents requirements."

Mr. Wilkins added that the suit would not only replace the two suits already being used by the fire department, but it would reduce inventory and expenditures too.

"The suit also has a seven-plus-year shelf-life, which is extendable until it can no longer pass the pressure tests, all at a fraction of the cost of the other two suits," he said.

Mr. Wilkins said they purchased 31 suits at $28,264.56, with an expected shelf-life of 10 years.

"The cost of our previously used Level-A and Level-B suits was $85,767.39, with a five year expected shelf life," he added. "The savings generated by purchasing the ONE Suit Pro instead of the previous HazMat suits will be $57,502.83, over a five year period, and the increase in shelf life of the ONE Suit Pro from five to 10 years also provides additional savings of $115,005.66."

Ms. Bentfield said that with their budgets getting smaller, it is very important to save money, and the IDEA program is a process that does that by making them take a look at current procedures at every level, while giving everyone a voice to suggest changes that could possibly enhance the processes.

"I'm proud to be part of the program," she added.

Mr. Malone said it was essential to continually assess the efficiency of our processes and think of new and innovative ways of conducting how we do business at every level.

"With time, our most valuable resource, as well as limited budgets and manpower, we should all identify areas where we are conducting unnecessary actions that do not contribute to the product produced or mission conducted," he added. "We can make ourselves more efficient and effective and this is where we all can help."

Mr. Wilkins said every year they look for ways to stretch their budget by streamlining how they do business.

However, it's not necessarily just money they try to save, he said.

"It's also about improving the quality of service we deliver to our Air Force family," he added. "Saving taxpayers' money while improving our quality of service is what our customers expect from us. Winning this award tells our customers that we are doing what they expect of us."