AFSO21 to improve, streamline wing

  • Published
  • By Ken Warren
  • 45th Space Wing Public Affairs
In his March 8, 2006 Letter to Airmen, Mr. Michael W. Wynne, Secretary of the Air Force identified Air Force Smart Operations 21 (AFSO 21) as the service's dedicated initiative to maximize value and minimize waste. He said, "With AFSO 21, we will march unnecessary work out the door - forever."

Mr. Wynne defined AFSO 21 as a leadership program for commanders and supervisors at all levels, looking at processes from beginning to end. To that end, he specifically called upon the 45th Space Wing to take a hard look at tasks associated with its mission and determine which tasks are relevant, productive and value added.

Starting Sunday, the 45th SW's senior leaders and some mid-level managers will spend all next week (with the exception of Wednesday) more or less sequestered in the E&L Building at Cape Canaveral AFS to focus on flowcharting wing operations/processes in the areas of range safety, range operations and launch processing.

Rick Blucker, 45th SW Chief of Plans and Programs, will be one of the participants. He said he's looking forward to it because he believes that when leaders from various sections of the wing get together to discuss their pieces of the mission, the proverbial question of "Why do we do things this way?" gets asked repeatedly from different angles.

"We think we understand our business, but when we think collectively, there's a special journey there...there's discovery and that's what we're after," said Mr. Blucker. "By week's end we're hoping to have captured the 'as is' condition for how our wing operates. We've got to do that before we can figure out how to make improvements."

Ultimately, the 45th SW is working toward showing Mr. Wynne its progress on AFSO 21 when he's scheduled to visit the Space Coast in mid-January.

"When all is said and done, AFSO 21 will help us improve our efficiencies, work smarter and do a better job of delivering combat effects to our warfighters from here at our spaceport," said Mr. Blucker.