AFSO 21 class teaches Airmen to do the seemingly impossible Published Dec. 5, 2006 By Master Sgt. Melissa Phillips 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- 1st in a 2-part series The Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century basic course here starts out like any other typical class. There are the usual pointed jabs toward the location of bathroom, snack bar and assembly meeting point in case of a fire. Then each student takes turns stating their name and affiliation. However, what is atypical about the AFSO 21 class here are the toys. What seems like millions of building block pieces are scattered across the front of the classroom waiting to be assembled. Playing with toys never seemed so tough Silence fills the room, as the instructor picks up a detailed, tiny jet fighter and lifts it high in the air to explain that constructing and selling jets to pretend customers is the top order of business that day. What does building a miniature jet have to do with AFSO 21? For one man, it's pretty simple. First, it's fun and second, the exercise demonstrates the practical applications of the AFSO 21 tool called Lean, which helps workers chart, document and find waste in their processes. "We are implementing Lean in the middle of a war with a high operations tempo; it's not easy," said Joe Harrison, 436th Maintenance Operations Squadron and AFSO 21 Basic instructor. "However, we have to do it now!" he tells students, who loudly voice their wariness of AFSO 21 becoming a repeat of the 1990's Total Quality Management program. "It's our best opportunity to get as far ahead as we can." Transforming into a smaller force AFSO 21 is part of a broader Air Force transformation strategy to recapitalize and replace aging weapon systems to better support the warfighter in an increasingly, technically-advanced environment. Senior leaders are encouraging Airmen to charge ahead with the program and use it as a tool to fill the gap, which will be left behind after the Air Force slims down by eliminating 35,000 active duty slots by 2011. AFSO 21 is a set of tools and a system of looking at each process from beginning to end. "(AFSO 21) doesn't just look at how we can do each task better, but asks the tougher and more important question: Why are we doing it this way? Is each of the tasks relevant, productive and value added? In other words, is it necessary at all," Michael W. Wynne, Secretary of the Air Force, said in a "Letter to Airmen" March 8. "For example, why does an (enlisted performance report) take 21 days at some bases to process, and only 8 at another? We must do better across the entire Air Force, and no process is immune from this critical review," Secretary Wynne said. No process is immune Upholding the mantra "no process is immune," not even a pretend one, Mr. Harrison randomly assigns students to fulfill different roles in a jet assembly line: worker bee, manager and expediter. Teams are tasked to build X amount of jets within a certain timeframe. There is no time to compensate for a learning curve and students must navigate through the jungle of the unknown in minutes. When questioned about the validity of expecting people to assemble such a complicated toy without the know-how or resources, he asks the students, "How many times have one of you been given a task that seemed unmanageable at first?" On the first go around, not one of the three teams actually builds a jet - strike one. Stealing 'ideas' is allowed and recommended After the first exercise in futility, classroom instruction starts on team building 101, brainstorming and AFSO 21 tools. That's where Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints come into play. Each are tried-and-true methods. "AFSO 21 is built on successful principles from the corporate world, and has already yielded results in the Air Force," said Secretary Wynne. At Dover Air Force Base, Lean has helped the Maintenance Group save thousands and cut work processes significantly. Maintainers reaped huge results after a Lean event, when they transformed what was a three-day process into a 30-minute job. On the other side of the base, the 436th Aeromedical Dental Squadron bioenvironmental engineering flight chief and his coworkers, cut a 21-day internal EPR suspense down to a more manageable 14. Why reinvent the wheel? After classroom instruction, students were given the opportunity to meet with each other and brainstorm a course of action to meet the customers' requirements - fully assembled jets. To do that in the fast-paced classroom environment, each teammate intuitively leveraged resources, sought out expertise within the team, strove for consensus decision-making and reassessed the situation as needed. "Lean is a common sense system applied by people," said Col. Vic Sowers, 436th Mission Support Group commander, who recently attended the class. The class is a way for instructors to visually knit together people's natural problem-solving abilities and serves to spark ideas on methods to document and refine work processes by introducing new tools. Failure is not an option Mr. Harrison says he's a firm believer in Lean and AFSO 21 principles, because he's seen them in practice. During the class, students get several strikes to refine their jet assembly process; however, Mr. Harrison is quick to point out the Air Force never gets a strike one or two to support the warfighter - failure is never an option. For Mr. Harrison, AFSO 21 isn't one more program to burden Airmen's already jammed-packed work week - it's a resource to help them. A method to the magic For Colonel Sowers, the program isn't just a tool reserved for leaders; he encourages all Airmen to learn all they can about AFSO 21. "It's always painful to take folks from their mission for training," said Colonel Sowers. "However, we have got to do this now. "We can't wait until the reduction takes place," Colonel Sowers said. "It will be too late then. We have to think beyond today, and think about the long term."