Armament improves operations with AFSO 21

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Duncan A. Gorrell
  • 20th Equipment Maintenance Squadron
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  Six Airmen from the 20th Maintenance Group recently conducted a Rapid Improvement Event as part of Air Force Smart Operations of the 21st Century initiatives going on across the Air Force.

Senior Airman Ronnie Eveland, 20th Equipment Maintenance Squadron, explained that while the RIE focused on the layout and space management of the 20th EMS Armament Flight, the objective was to increase overall productivity while maintaining a safe and reliable work center, as well as maximizing the use of available space.

Overall, the team successfully reduced personnel travel time by 41 percent on all processes, explained Airman Eveland. They returned three personnel back to the maintenance floor by deactivating the support section and developed a status board to cue the maintainer on the next equipment inspection he is assigned to complete, continued Airman Eveland.

The team started with a current state layout of the work center and brainstormed ways to improve efficiency and space utilization by analyzing current maintenance practices. As a result, they discovered several areas that could be improved to cut down on movement time, eliminate waste and improve space utilization.

With these findings the team developed a future state layout of the work center that was implemented at the end of the week.

Waste was also an issue tackled by the team. With their collective effort they were able to recycle 5,000 pounds of excess equipment, implement a gun station to perform all maintenance on the F-16 gun system and relocate equipment racks closer to work stations to increase productivity.

"AFSO21 empowers and gives a voice to Airmen to make changes in their work center," said Staff Sgt. Christopher Evans, 20th EMS Armament flight. "It brings new and fresh ideas to processes that are broken or need improvement. In order to keep up with the changing Air Force, we have to evaluate the way we do business and change accordingly."

Airman Eveland agreed that AFSO 21 did improve overall functions for his shop.
"After re-organizing our shop and seeing the improvements, I know that AFSO21 can work for everyone in the Air Force," he said. "Being an Airman it was nice to finally have a voice and have my ideas heard."