AFSO21: Striving for perfection

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Matthew Hubby
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
The Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century program strives for one thing over all - perfection; facilitators assist in the program with their vast knowledge and training on all things lean, these facilitators are ranked by a belt system, and Laura Chupp, 436th Mission Support Group AFSO21 program manager, has earned distinction by attaining her black belt.

"AFSO21 black belts make up less than one percent of the current AFSO21 culture in the Air Force," said Ronald Collins, 436th Airlift Wing AFSO21 process manager. "While the goal is to have one percent of facilitators to be black belts Air Force wide actually, currently it's a privilege to be selected, Laura is the third black belt to be certified at Dover, and for the last two and a half years we have only had one black belt assigned here."

The key event for her black belt training came when in August 2009 it was noticed passengers were not getting their meals from the flight kitchen. After sitting down with members from the flight kitchen, fleet services and the passenger terminal, Ms. Chupp discovered that from the time a meal was ordered until its delivery to the customer, it took 168 minutes, traveled 14 miles and was subjected to nine different kinds of paperwork.

"There was a lot of room for error," said Ms. Chupp. "The flight kitchen was unable to deliver 110 meals in about 30 days. Some of them were reissued, but the majority went to waste. So we all sat down and looked it over, and tried to figure out what the root cause was. We pinpointed the problem to a lack of communication and a breakdown in continuity of personnel."

As luck would have it, the United Service Organization in the passenger terminal was renovating and moving to a new location, leaving a vacancy in the passenger terminal. With permission from wing leadership, the flight kitchen was able to move from its location in the dining facility, to a more advantageous location in the passenger terminal.

"Once the flight kitchen was co-located with both fleet services and the passenger terminal there was tremendous improvement," said Ms. Chupp. "Now the meals don't travel at all, the passengers order their meals, move through the gate and pick up their meals before they board the plane. There is better communication between the flight kitchen and the passenger terminal, and the customer service the flight kitchen provides has increased as well. Administrative paperwork is down about 78 percent, going from nine pieces of paperwork down to only two."

The time taken for the entire process has seen a 50 percent decrease, down from 168 minutes to about 84 minutes.

"Fleet services no longer needs to travel to the plane, freeing up individuals for other tasks," said Ms. Chupp. "Though really, I couldn't have done this on my own without my two team leaders, 1st Lt. Robert Neuman and Staff Sgt. Carolina Angulo. They were the ones who really lead the charge to get this done."

Ms. Chupp began her certification training in July 2009, when she was singled out during the wing in-processing rapid improvement event. She then had to take a training course from the University of Tennessee, with a week of working with civilian business to sharpen her lean skills. After a year of training and three wing-level RIEs and some mentoring from an AFSO21 black belt, a package was compiled and sent through the wing to Air Mobility Command, from there, it was forwarded to the Secretary of the Air Force Undersecretary for Managements and Standards, who certified her as an AFSO21 black belt.

"With Laura becoming a black belt, it really has enhanced Dover Air Force Base's AFSO21 capabilities," said Mr. Collins. "A lot of training is limited to black belt level or higher, and there is now another recruiter and mentor for green belt trainees. AFSO21 takes persistence and passion, something Laura has in spades."