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Shaw conducts rapid improvement events

  • Published
  • By Tarsha Storey
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  People from Shaw's mission support, maintenance and medical squadrons met recently for three Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century Rapid Improvement Events.

The teams discussed ways to do tasks better, smarter and faster in three areas: F-16 refueling, 18-month F-16 gun inspections and deployment processing.

The first team, led by Maj. Simon Izaguirre, 20th Component Maintenance Squadron commander, evaluated the F-16 refueling process. Chief Master Sgt. Don DeMarte, 20th Maintenance Group wing weapons manager, led the second team and discussed the 18-month gun inspection process, and Maj. Jimmie Sullivan, 20th Mission Support Squadron commander, led the third team through their review of the deployment processing system.

With a large sheet of paper on the wall, markers and a host of sticky notes, each team detailed their current processes. Then they discussed an ideal future state and improvements necessary to achieve it.

The first team said they could make the F-16 refueling process 24-percent faster, improve reaction time, increase flexibility for emergencies or priority changes and reduce clutter. This future state helps personnel achieve a faster check of the fuel truck's safety zone by rearranging and removing all unnecessary equipment, starting fuel preparations before the F-16 lands and decreasing unnecessary communication and coordination requirements. The goals could be achieved while incurring no additional costs and possibly saving personnel working hours, said Staff Sgt. Darren Milliken 20th Maintenance Operations Squadron controller and member of Maj. Izaguirre's team.

Maj. Izaguirre said the team's new process would streamline the F-16 fueling process and increase F-16 turn around time.

Chief DeMarte's 18-month F-16 gun inspection team determined ways decrease the necessary time for an F-16 to be on the ground between sorties by centralizing tools, reducing unnecessary inspection requirements, conducting preliminary inspections prior to the disassembly and installing the handling system when it is finished instead of waiting until the entire system is done. Other possible solutions included: having a spare gun in each unit, having a centralized location for scheduled heavy maintenance, inspecting the gun based on how many rounds it shoots instead of the time, establishing a team to conduct the entire operation or inspecting the gun along with the phase inspection every 17.45 months.

They detailed their entire 18-month gun inspection process and determined it would be possible to reduce the needed time from 50.5 hours to 37.5 hours, without a spare gun, effectively reducing the scheduled aircraft downtime from 72 hours to 48 hours for a gun inspection, he said.

While reducing aircraft turn-around time was important to the first two teams, the third team concentrated on decreasing the amount of time personnel need for deployment processing.

They outlined a future deployment process with a centralized pick-up and drop-off location instead of multiple locations. Another step of the process, pre-screening mobility folders, will help processing personnel to track any possible issues and keep them from preventing the member from deploying. These processes would reduce the deployment processing time by about 50 percent, allowing members more time with their families and allowing squadrons more time to correct possible issues, said Capt. Christopher Hall, 20th Logistics Readiness Squadron operations officer in charge and member of Maj. Sullivan's team.

"Even though the focus of each rapid improvement event varied, the idea behind them is the same: increase flexibility, decrease response and turn time, use personnel and resources more efficiently, improve quality of life for our Airmen, improve and direct the flow of information communication to increase the wing's war-time capability," said Col. Bill Hyatt, 20th Fighter Wing commander. "I'm very proud of our teams and I'm excited to see the changes take place."