AFSO21 Rapid Improvement Event streamlines report process

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. David Whitecar
  • 51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea (AFNS) --  Officials here are bringing change to the performance reporting process, thanks to a recent week-long Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century Rapid Improvement Event.

Subject matter experts from the wing gathered with a goal of streamlining the enlisted and officer performance reports processes -- doing things right the first time. Performance report specialists from all units laid bare the current EPR and OPR processes from start to finish, highlighting deficiencies and waste. At the end of the week, they outlined a renewed and streamlined process, reducing the number of people involved, while delivering a higher-quality product at each stop.

"I think it's going to help out because it will create standard roles for everybody," said 2nd Lt. Emilee Stewart, the 51st Operations Group executive officer. "The quality will be better, because everybody knows their job."

Capt. Kimberly Jennings, from the 51st Force Support Squadron, said the objective is to be 100 percent on-time for all reports. Under the current process, performance reports have been delayed dramatically. Reports for some Osan Air Base Airmen were taking up to 138 days to process from start to finish. The goal is to reduce that time to 45 days.

During the RIE, team members identified layers and quality as major deficiencies in the current process.

Master Sgt. Chad Chapman, the 51st Fighter Wing executive staff superintendent, said multiple layers of "eyes on" each performance report often leads to complacency.

"Throwing more people at it doesn't solve the problem," he said. "Even simple errors such as a missing signature or unchecked box were going unnoticed as each level assumed the one below them had already scrubbed the report."

Another goal of the plan is standardization -- minimizing style differences among reviewers.

To address this concern, a new Osan AB EPR/OPR writing guide will soon be made available to the base, providing in-depth guidance for producing quality reports.

Staff Sgt. Stacy Jordan, from the 51st FSS, said the RIE was eye-opening.

"I learned why the process was taking so long, and how many people were involved," she said. "I think streamlining the process is going to be very helpful, and it will work if (leaders hold)  everyone accountable."

To that end,  "I will hold our wing accountable to the process, but I need you as experts to train and 'buddy-up' your first sergeants," said Col. Patrick C. Malackowski, the 51st Fighter Wing commander. "For those of us that are master sergeants and above, we need to look at our front line supervisors -- our lieutenants, our staff sergeants and our captains -- and hold them accountable.

"For all of us, as supervisors, we've got to document this and get the process right," he said.

Col. Brou Gautier, the director of AFSO21 for Pacific Air Forces, who served as the RIE facilitator, said, "The biggest complaint I hear from Airmen is they never have enough time to do all the things required of them."

"I'm excited because this team took that challenge and will deliver a product that will create more time for Airmen to focus on other critical 51st Fighter Wing tasks," he continued. "I think it's going to work and it has the potential to impact processes throughout PACAF," said Colonel Gautier. "There are some lessons learned that could even impact processes at the Air Force level."

(Staff Sgt. Eric Burks contributed to this article)