DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- In the words of President Woodrow Wilson, "I would rather fail in a cause that will ultimately triumph than to triumph in a cause that will ultimately fail."
With this mindset, and in the face of possible failure, Dyess leadership implemented revolutionary changes over the last 16-months in the way it maintains B-1s, and how its sorties are generated.
Ensuring aviators are mission ready for combat, as well as training students to serve as B-1 aviators, are top priorities for Dyess Air Force Base. However, by September 2010, Dyess leadership recognized the wing was experiencing major challenges in keeping the largest B-1 bomber fleet and its crews mission ready.
U.S. Air Force Col. David Béen, 7th Bomb Wing commander, realized these challenges had to be overcome; he created a Maintenance and Operations Strategy Formulation Team to examine the challenges and develop a long-term strategy to overcome these problems.
"Plain and simple, we weren't flying enough sorties," said Col. Gerald Goodfellow, 7th Bomb Wing vice commander. "B-1 maintainers were producing the maximum level of sorties they could, but even at our maximum sortie generation, their output wasn't meeting the requirement that our aviators needed to meet their training obilgations."
"Colonel Béen had great confidence this problem could be solved if he brought together experts from across Dyess. He believed we needed a well-thought out plan to overcome our problems, and was confident we had the brightest minds at Dyess who could develop such a plan," Goodfellow said.
Some early successes of the team included breaking down barriers of communication between the maintenance and operation groups, as well as vast improvements in command and control, whereby leadership placed the decision making back at the "point of execution."
"The creation of this strategy team shattered many preconceived notions held within the maintenance and operation communities," said Maj. Shawnn Martin, 7th Equipment Maintenance Squadron commander. "As the group learned, many sound ideas were generated and used to improve fleet management."
In addition to the improvement of communication and command and control, Béen implemented many other recommendations the strategy team presented to him. For example, he immediately implemented a two-hour limit for late takeoff times, meaning any sortie requiring more than two hours of maintenance would be cancelled.
"This might be looked at as a small change," Martin said. "But this simple change allowed manpower resources to be focused on other aircraft and not sacrifice later sorties for the sake of a single sortie."
"With these new changes, added time and resources were allocated to improving our fleet health, a main priority of the wing," added Col. Bryan Harris, 7th Maintenance Group deputy commander.
Prior to convening the strategy formulation team, approximately 65 percent of contracted sorties were flown with an average late takeoff time of nearly two-and-one-half hours. After the small change, the vast majority of sorties tookoff on time and the wing continued to improve every month, according to Goodfellow.
In August 2011, 10 months after the team developed their initial strategy, the team reconvened to assess where they were and adapt a strategy for the next generation.
"During the second generation of strategy formulation, the wing broadened its membership to include Airmen from each group on base," Goodfellow said. "We wanted to get the perspective and input from every corner of the base because innovation can only be made possible through a team concept."
At the end of the August assessment, Béen adopted what he called the "next generation strategy," which focused intensely on improving overall fleet health.
The first major experiment to come out the "next generation strategy" occurred in October 2011, when the 7th BW implemented a revolutionary change, completely restructuring the B-1 flying schedule.
"The significant change was in how we utilized a 14-hour flying window," Martin said. "Previously, the wing relied on turning an aircraft, which meant a B-1 flew a morning sortie, received minor maintenance and then flew a later sortie.
"Now, with this revolutionary change, the wing no longer turns an aircraft but instead one aircraft is dedicated to a single sortie per day," Martin continued.
"Much initial resistance was voiced up front," added Harris. "However, after two weeks into the new structure, those with vested interest wanted to keep the new plan in place."
Under this new construct, not only did aircrew gain increased time for training sorties, but maintenance reduced the need to reprioritize its objectives to meet later sortie requirements, which increased its focused touch-time by more than 20 percent.
"The scheduling turn pattern is only one of 31 focus areas for potential improvement of B-1 fleet health management," Harris said. "Several other areas have also been successfully implemented, but the turn pattern has arguably been the most significant improvement."
Since using these pioneering changes, the 7th BW has seen an unprecedented improvement in all areas that were initially addressed by base leadership more than a year ago.
"In my 24 years of service, this is some of the finest work I have ever seen," Béen said. "In fact, for the first time that I can remember, we are flying 100 percent of the sorties contracted from maintenance."
"By taking a risk on this large systemic change, the 7th BW was able to create time, which was reinvested into fleet health that significantly reduced 'white space' allowing the wing to achieve its operational flying requirements," Martin said.
Like Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said, "every Airman is an innovator" and during the last year we can clearly see Dyess Airmen are leading in the Air Force's innovative tradition.