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458th Airlift Squadron uses AFSO21 to improve procedures

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jake Eckhardt
  • 375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  The 458th Airlift Squadron's mission scheduling process was improved by using Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century, or AFSO21, procedures. The change created a more efficient crew scheduling system.

AFSO21 includes an eight-step problem solving program that provides organizations with the tools necessary to determine which steps, processes or entire jobs are efficient and which are not.

"The schedulers for the missions were receiving information from multiple sources," said Lt. Col. Allison Trinklein, 458th AS operations officer. "It took a large amount of time to find an appropriate crew to fill a mission."

The biggest obstacle the team had to hurdle was getting a crew of people together for a mission. After filling a mission with crew members, the scheduler would have to trade out members because new information would surface indicating that the member was not available or the member was not mission ready.

"These last minute changes disrupted other offices in the squadron, including the training office and our Squadron Aviation Resource Management office," said Trinklein. "The SARM office and Ops stayed late in the day often to fix problems with scheduled crews."

Along with assembling a team, another problem they confronted was receiving information about the crew members.

"Each time a mission was assigned, I had to reference multiple sources to determine which crew members were available and qualified to do the mission assigned," said 1st Lt. Alexander Smith, 458th AS, resource advisor. "This led to a lot of wasted time, mostly due to a lack of consolidated information. The sources I checked ranged from word of mouth to spreadsheets to various computer scheduling programs."

Before, the team used Global Decision Support System 2 along with four other systems to check for crew information.

"Crews now put all events, appointments, flights, and open time in GDSS2," said Smith. "The accountability with the new system is a great asset to me as a scheduler. If you are not shown as 'busy' in GDSS2, you are fair game to fly. There were too many holes in the old system where a scheduler had to actually track someone down via phone/email to know if they could fly."

The squadron is consistently looking for new ways to improve the processes as well as making the new and improved process a written policy.

Trinklein said,"We have eliminated redundant, and often, incorrect products. Most importantly, we have improved the process so that we can better serve."

Smith said, "AFSO21 has shown me that we are not going to be satisfied with inferior products. The 458th is an organization that is going to seek out opportunities to improve and reduce the workload on her people. In our current environment of lessening resources and manning, it is invaluable to have leadership in the 458th who is concerned for the welfare and efficiency of their people. These changes are evidence that the 458th will still accomplish the daily mission while keeping our priorities in order."