AFSO 21: Depending on Airmen to improve processes

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Brian Jones
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century is the Air Force's dedicated effort to maximize value and minimize waste in all of our processes. For this program to be successful, ideas for improvements in work centers have to come from the Airmen most familiar with the unit's practices.

To help Airmen identify AFSO 21 projects and guide them through the process, Incirlik has program experts standing by to lend a hand.

"We help organizations on base facilitate any process improvement programs they want to start," said Rachel Arndt Incirlik AFSO facilitator. "We also teach an AFSO 21 familiarization course as part of Customer College and are developing 'Just in Time' training for anyone who gets involved with AFSO 21 projects."

There are several different avenues for submitting an AFSO 21 idea. Airmen can work through their chain of command, with their unit AFSO 21 representative or directly with the base's AFSO 21 facilitators. Often, getting over the "this is the way we've always done it" attitude is the first step in initiating a process improvement.

"A lot of processes are old and designed around an Air Force that doesn't exist anymore," said Sarah Freeman Incirlik AFSO 21 facilitator. "An initiative can come from anyone on base. Sometimes it takes that one person who sees things a different way to bring change about."

Additionally, AFSO 21 ideas don't have to be on a grand scale to bring about positive change.

"It doesn't necessarily have to be a large project," said Ms. Arndt. "Sometimes smaller processes uncover larger ones."

Col. "Tip" Stinnette, 39th Air Base Wing commander has said that AFSO 21 isn't about colonels and chiefs coming up with "good ideas," but rather Airmen telling the Air Force what processes are broken and how they can be made better.

"It's about people doing the job deciding how the job should be done. "It's up to our youngest, brightest and most technically trained to show us what we can change about their Air Force," said Ms. Arndt. "Our Airmen today, are our chiefs tomorrow."

For more information on AFSO 21 or how to bring attention to your ideas, visit the AFSO 21 link here.