AFSO21 - working smarter, leaner, faster and ultimately better

  • Published
  • By Joe B. Wiles
  • 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  When you take an Air Force budget not likely to grow and toss in recent manpower cuts and regular deployments, getting the Air Force job done becomes a challenge. Everybody has more job than they have day to do it and a more difficult job of balancing home life and other obligations.

An initiative kicked off by Air Force leadership called, Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century, provides tools and methods to bring the job under control by leaning out unnecessary parts and empowering folks to enact improvements at the ground level. 

Lt. Col. Brian Hellinger, the 71st Flying Training Wing AFSO21 representative, heads the Vance drive toward smarter, leaner, faster and ultimately better ways to accomplish the mission. "The AFSO21 shop doesn't necessarily have the answers, but rather by bringing people together from different organizations across the base, we can find the inefficiencies in the way we are doing business and perhaps improve the process," he said. 

Each group on base has provided a person to work with Colonel Hellinger, part time, in the new AFSO21 office on the second floor of Wing Headquarters, Bldg. 500, Suite 205. 

"AFSO21 is not a suggestion program," Colonel Hellinger explained. "It is a set of tools that help an organization see how they do a job and focus on the unnecessary steps that can be eliminated. 

"One example was that the wing recently held an AFSO21 event with our maintenance folks, in conjunction with participants from Headquarters, Air Education & Training Command. The team sat down and looked at the entire Maintenance process," he said. "One problem identified was that the contract called for a certain number of aircraft to be available for flying each day. But that this far exceeded the number of jets the ops units could fly each day. 

"By figuring out a more realistic number, the contractor has the flexibility to meet the requirement without expending extra, unnecessary man-hours," said Colonel Hellinger. 

Implementing changes learned from the maintenance event is in its infant stage. "We'll have to measure these changes and see how it affects the bottom-line," Colonel Hellinger said. 

An AFSO21 event already implemented affects deployers at Vance. "We pulled together all the folks involved in getting a member deployed, discovered a number of steps we could eliminate or consolidate, and wound up saving the deployer a lot of time," he said. 

"One aspect of AFSO21 that aligns perfectly with our upcoming Operational Readiness Inspection, is the 'Six Ss,' a series of goals designed to save time and material," Colonel Hellinger said. "The six Ss are: sort, straighten, shine, standardize, sustain and safety." 

According to Colonel Hellinger, sorting involves cleaning and organizing, keeping only what you need in the quantities you need to do the job. Straightening puts things where they are needed, properly identified, and easily accessed. 

Shining your tools and workplace provides the chance to inspect everything for serviceability. Standardizing provides the fastest, safest, best quality repeatable steps for getting the job done. 

Sustaining means continuing to train and maintain standards, seeking every opportunity for improvement. And of course, Safety is the most important one of all. 

"It is not only tragic, but wasteful when ever someone gets injured," said Colonel Hellinger. "Everyone is a valuable member of the team. And while we can't make people be safe, we can certainly ensure they have opportunities to make safe choices." 

For more information about AFSO21, contact Colonel Hellinger at 213-5215. 

For those wanting a better understanding of the continuous improvement process and how to lean out an organization, Colonel Hellinger recommends the book, "Lean Thinking" by James P. Womack.