A vision to be America's best

  • Published
  • By Capt. Genieve David
  • 75th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  The Ogden Air Logistics Center commander recently held her first series of commander's calls since taking over the center in June.

During four sessions, in October, Maj. Gen. Kathleen Close, Ogden ALC commander voiced her vision for the future of the Ogden ALC--to be America's best, war-winning capabilities on time and on cost.

She pointed out the Air Force priorities, continuing the Global War on Terror, care for our Airmen and their families, and recapitalization/modernization of our aircraft. She stated she was pleased with what we are doing here locally because we have programs here at Hill that are covering all these aspects of Air Force priorities.

There are several programs at the logistics center that are directly contributing to the recapitalization and modernization priority according to the general. The F-16 Falcon Structural Augmentation Roadmap and Common Configuration Implementation Program is an example of how Team Hill is extending the life of the airframe to the year 2020. For example, the A-10 precision engagement and wing replacement program, the Intercontinental Ballistics Missile security modification and propulsion replacement program, the F-22 night-to-air refueling modification and structural retrofit plan. All of these programs are conducted right here at Hill and there is a direct link to accomplishing this priority for the Air Force.

The importance of the Air Force-wide Wingman program, safety, no cell phone usage while on Department of Defense installations, recap on 101 Critical Days of Summer statistics and the Voluntary Protection Program.

"Bottom line, you need to take care of yourself, the people around you and the mission," said General Close.

The following questions were posed during the Fall commander's call session:

Q) Can you give us an update on the National Security Personnel System ? What are the chances of bargaining unit employees being part of implementation within the next year? How is it affecting our pay?

A. At this moment there are no court rulings stopping the Department of Defense from implementing NSPS to the bargaining unit employees. However, DoD has decided to wait before they move bargaining unit employees under NSPS. There are several reasons for the delay to include completing the current spiral of non-bargaining unit employees and seeing a performance management cycle come to fruition and there are many legislative activities that may have an affect on NSPS. 

We did not see such a disparity in the mock appraisal exercise earlier this year. This is partly because built into the system are DoD-wide thresholds, in the form or performance indicators and contributing factors, which help management view performance of various objectives and types of work in an equitable way. The Pay Pool Manager Crosstalk and the Performance Review Board have actively discussed this topic and addressed it in lessons learned from the mock exercise. They reaffirmed that all employees, including supervisors, are to be rated using the DoD wide thresholds. In addition, there are thresholds specific to supervisors and managers. Supervisors and managers have a required job objective that is based on how well they carry out their supervisory duties and holds them to a higher standard than employees.

Q.) The Standard-Examiner had an article about annexing 600 acres of the West Area, why and where are we expected to move?

A. The Air Force is currently in negotiations with a developer who plans to build a commercial office complex on the base's west side land. Part of the concept is to build new facilities for Hill AFB, which will replace the current 1200 series zone buildings and other facilities on the west side of the base. Once the development plans are finalized, we will work with all affected base organizations to plan, build, and move into our new facilities. It's anticipated that our new buildings will come in phases over the next few years which will allow us time to put together effective relocation plans. 

The West Side Development (WSD) project is currently in the negotiation phase with the selected developer so we do not have an exact schedule of when affected personnel will move. However, the current estimate is that the developer will complete construction of the initial allocation of Air Force office space in late 2009 or early 2010. This would mean Air Force personnel could move into this space as early as the spring of 2010, after the Air Force provides furnishings and completes the communication work necessary for occupancy.

Q.) How are we doing on our Lean journey?

A. The Ogden Air Logistics Centers started its Lean journey in 2003. To date we have completed over 500 projects, reduced overall maintenance flow days by 30 percent, and realized a maintenance cost avoidance savings of more than $160 million. In addition, we've earned international recognition by winning the public sector Shingo Prize in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Our state of the art software group has achieved a Level 5 Capability Maturity Model Integration rating which puts them among the "best in class" for their industry. Similarly, the 309th Maintenance Wing has become AS9100 certified, which, puts them parallel with the top 10 percent of large manufacturing/production organizations in the country.

We have also realized several positive trends in our culture as evidenced by a 43 percent increase in Idea Program submittals, a 37 percent reduction in Equal Employment Opportunity Complaints, and a 20 percent reduction in union grievances. Overall, Ogden ALC is progressing nicely along its lean journey, but in reality we have just scratched the surface of what is possible and I fully believe that the best results are yet to come. 

Q.) It appears work is being done in the old Base Exchange--what is going in that space? 

A. The old base exchange is being converted into a consolidated customer support center to make life easier on all who have a permanent change of station into Hill AFB. It will be a One-Stop Shop instead of the multiple stops our people have to go through presently. The following units will reside in the center: financial management, 75th Mission Support Squadron, 419th Mission Support Group and the 75th Logistics Readiness Squadron's Traffic Management Office.

Q.) Are there any plans to construct an over the road or under the road pedestrian crossway in front of the 388th Fighter Wing or other areas where there is heavy pedestrian crossing?

A. We have no plans to construct over/under road pedestrian walkways on the installation since they are extremely expensive, and frankly those we have are not used as much as we'd like. We are most concerned about crosswalks on South Gate where thousands of pedestrians cross the busy road each day. We are installing a traffic light with pedestrian crossing signal at the intersection of 8th and South Gate and two pedestrian activated traffic lights at existing crosswalks near 6th and South Gate also near B and South Gate to try and make our most dangerous walkways safer.

Q.) Air Force Smart Operations is an Air Force initiative to lean out Air Force processes and business practices. The CMMI Level 5 processes and procedures, used here at Hill AFB, incur costs in time and resources to comply. For smaller projects this burden of cost is a significant ratio, with smaller projects having to complete the same processes and procedures as larger projects. Are CMMI Level 5 processes and procedures a candidate for AFSO21 to assure these processes and procedures are lean and we are getting the desired return on investment?

A. The CMMI contains a set of best practices that must be performed by organizations in order to be appraised at CMMI Level 5 (or any other level that you've been appraised at). In other words, if we are CMMI level 5, we must perform the practices that are required for this maturity level. Part of practices that are part of CMMI level 5 are about tailoring processes and practices for what is appropriate for a project in their particular circumstances, and also leaning out processes and improving them continuously as opportunities for that are discovered. I would say that we are already trying to "lean-out" processes for small projects as much as we can, while still performing the practices that we must as we comply with the CMMI. We do have the freedom to do that, but we aren't allowed to drop out practices entirely if we can't demonstrate a strong business case for it. We don't let projects "lean-out" practices that they just don't want to do. Typically we would look for less rigorous ways of implementing a practice on small projects, or using organizational support to help on implementing these practices to relieve burdens on them. 

Q.) What are you doing to motivate mid-level managers (WS-14/GS-13) to become engaged in lean transformation?

A. The Air Force and Ogden ALC have numerous award programs to recognize and motivate our mid-level managers for innovative and excellent behavior. However, our most effective way of motivating or compelling mid-level managers to engage in Lean Transformation is to make it a condition of employment. Senior Ogden ALC leaders have developed a strategic vision, mission, and goals that provide a unified approach and a shared direction of what we need to focus on in order to best support the war fighter, and to enhance the viability of Hill AFB. From the center to the squadron level, all managers must understand their roles and responsibilities as they are being held accountable for their part in reaching these goals. Because successful goal attainment requires lean thinking, managers at all levels have no choice but to engage in continuous process improvement efforts if they hope to be successful.

Q. ) An engineering retention incentive is going away January 2008. Engineers will lose between 5 percent to 10 percent of their pay. Recent attempts to hire engineers have been fruitless. We could not compete with industry standard pay. One out of seven recent attempts to hire engineers have been successful. How has this decision been justified and has it been validated recently?

A. The announcement was made in June 2007 that the Group Retention Incentive paid to engineers would be discontinued in Jan. 2008. We don't have sufficient data from the past six months related to recruitment or retention to draw any conclusions that would validate or invalidate the decision to discontinue the GRI.

The Engineering Directorate does monitor retention and hiring rates for the engineering workforce. It's important to understand that retention and recruitment are managed with different tools and strategies. The GRI that has been paid to engineers was never available to new hires their first year of employment. The decision to end the GRI was based on a number of factors, including the new NSPS contribution-based pay system. The potential effects of the change to NSPS and the discontinuation of the GRI on engineering workforce retention will be continuously monitored as the Fiscal Year 2007 NSPS appraisal process is completed.