Doing Recon on the AFSO21 Battlefield Published Oct. 6, 2010 By Col. Dennis Simpson 375th Communications Group commander SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- Ask an Airman if they're doing a good job, they'll likely say, "Yes." Ask them to prove it, and most won't know how to answer. It's not that they aren't doing a good job; they just don't know how to answer. You'd like to hear, "Our section processes requests within one day of a call and fixes the problem within 48 hours at least 90 percent of the time. Our metrics show we've been able to meet this standard 95 percent of the time this last month. Yes, we're doing a good job!" Sounds easy--we all know it's not. Look at your duty sections. What do they produce? Who are their customers? What's their process for production? How fast are they supposed to produce? The last question is the payoff. Unless you know what standard you're trying to meet, you can't truly be successful. The tools to answer these questions are in your Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century tool box. Before you stop reading, give me a second. Mention "AFSO21" and you might get a negative reaction--"this is Quality Air Force all over again." Not true. QAF started off with good intentions, but ultimately Airmen fed the QAF beast without improving the way they did their jobs. AFSO21 is not QAF. AFSO21 improves what you do by eliminating waste in your processes; that's the measure of success--not that an event was held or that PowerPoint slides were made. Some say we don't have time for AFSO21. But how can we not make the time for it? As leaders we're expected to produce results. We've been given people, tools and processes to accomplish our mission, but we must work through having fewer people to do the same things we've always done. We won't get more resources and no one's given us a pass to "do less with less." This leaves our processes--the only thing we can control. AFSO21 helps us streamline those processes. Shortly after I arrived, the wing AFSO21 representative assessed my unit. She said we could improve by 30 percent. This news made me a bit angry (no one likes to hear they're doing that badly), but I had no way to prove we couldn't get better. After the visit, I got educated about AFSO21: a tool set for leaders to help their people do what they do better. I was not such a convert to blindly carve out 5 percent of my total workforce and dedicate them to process improvement. Nor did we have a week-long AFSO21 event just to have one or, worse yet, not improve because we didn't pick a good process to examine. I wanted a way to target our AFSO21 efforts. That's where the Value Stream Analysis comes in. The VSA is the first step in an AFSO21 event and helps quickly target future AFSO21 activities so they strike the processes needing the most improvement. VSAs allow recon of your AFSO21 battlefield--they let you find your high value targets. We've had some success using the VSA in the Communications Group. The key function of a VSA is to map your process flow and identify the time each step takes and which steps add value. You also need to factor in Air Force Instructions and other requirements that govern what you do. In our VSAs, we located areas of process improvement and, ultimately, identified ways to objectively measure that improvement. We still have a long way to go in the CG but VSAs have improved our situation. A good leader will fight for resources for their people. Everyone went through PDB720 and everyone has a tighter budget. By showing you've used AFSO21 to improve your processes and have objective information to show how well your unit is performing, you'll be more successful at getting what you need, including funds, if you can show the investment will result in improvement. We can almost always do better, and given the stress we're under in the Air Force these days, we owe it to our people to do everything we can to make their lives better.