Guard, Harley-Davidson join forces to improve processes

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Nathan Wallin
  • 128th Air Refueling Wing
MILWAUKEE (AFPN) --  Air Force and Harley-Davidson officials pooled their knowledge on process improvement for the benefit of both organizations in May at Harley-Davidson University here.

"Everything we do is a process, whether it's building a motorcycle or reviewing an airplane to get it back in flight," said Steve Nelson of Harley-Davidson.

Mr. Nelson, who is the motorcycle company's process lead for operational excellence, engaged in the Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st century facilitator training: Training the trainers course. AFSO 21 eliminates wasteful and unnecessary processes throughout the Air Force. 

In November 2007, Col. Billy Asbell, the director of the Air National Guard's AFSO 21 program, came to Milwaukee's 128th Air Refueling Wing to help with process improvements. He and his team found many ways to eliminate wasted time from the aircraft inspection process, resulting in a 60 percent reduction in time spent. The team also shaved significant time off the process of painting the refueling booms on KC-135 Stratotankers. 

Lt. Col. Craig Plain of the 128th Air Refueling Wing here suggested a tour of the nearby Harley-Davidson motorcycle factory. He is the director of flexible and emerging learning opportunities at Madison Area Technical College, an academic post with some relevance to process improvement. 

Since Harley-Davidson has a process improvement program of its own under the rubric of "Operational Excellence," the tour givers and the tour takers started comparing notes. 

With ideas flying, the original purpose of the visit was soon forgotten. 

"We never got to the tour," Colonel Asbell said. "It went real quickly from a tour to a meeting. We talked for about three hours." 

The exchange of ideas led directly to this spring's joint military-civilian training event at Harley-Davidson University. 

About 20 Air National Guard members from Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Oregon and California gathered May 5 to 9 to glean knowledge of process improvement from Colonel Asbell's AFSO 21 team and the Harley-Davidson participants. 

In teaming up with the Milwaukee-based motorcycle manufacturer, the AFSO 21 team hoped to learn how nonmilitary managers in a leading company improve the work load, work flow and productivity of their business operations; and then to apply the best of those ideas to the Air National Guard. 

Colonel Asbell estimated that about 10 percent of Air National Guard members work with process improvement in their civilian jobs. 

"I want to find those people (and put them to work)," he said. 

From Harley-Davidson's point of view, the benefits of sharing knowledge with the Air National Guard were well worth the effort. 

"While what we do might be very different, how we do it sometimes isn't as different as we might think," Mr. Nelson said. "And why we need to do it is often very similar." 

For Harley-Davidson officials, it was an opportunity to learn about AFSO 21. The AFSO 21 method examines the processes of any office or shop and breaks them down to a long list of individual steps using value-stream mapping, a procedure Colonel Asbell refers to as "mapping it out." 

The individual steps are evaluated one-by-one to figure out exactly which ones are necessary to the job and which ones are not. The steps deemed unnecessary are promptly cut from the list. The end product is a streamlined process that leads to better productivity. 

And it doesn't matter if your collar is blue or white -- or even camouflage. Part of AFSO 21's appeal is its "one size fits all" approach. Whatever the job, an AFSO 21 specialist can help workers examine and analyze their operating procedures, uncover the wasteful and redundant parts of the job and then create a new, more effective and time-saving way to get it done. 

The Milwaukee training included military officers from specialties as diverse as finance and aircraft maintenance. 

"AFSO can work anywhere there's a process," Colonel Asbell said. 

With AFSO 21, workers have direct input into improving the way things are done in their workplaces. By engaging their workers, managers see a greater enthusiasm for the project, and by going straight to their employees and asking for their suggestions, managers get a more precise and fuller picture of exactly how the job gets done in their shop. 

"It's not a push, it's a pull," Colonel Asbell said. "This is an opportunity for everyone to change their environment and fix a broken process."

Comment on this story (comments may be published on Air Force Link)

View the comments/letters page