AFSO21 team forges new tanker value stream map

  • Published
  • By McConnell AFSO21 team staff
  • 22nd Air Refueling Wing
Colonel Ray LaMarche, 22nd Operations Group Commander, led a team of active-duty, Reserve, and civilian representatives from several bases throughout 18th Air Force in an Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century exercise here Nov. 27 through 29.

The exercise brought representatives together for the first time to develop a tanker enterprise value stream map. This means the representatives met to map out the capabilities 18th Air Force tankers have to aid warfighters and evaluate the processes through which the aircraft execute warfighting missions.

The team expanded upon an tanker airlift control center EVSM developed in October to identify specific key processes performed by both KC-135 and KC-10 units.

As one of the outcomes of this group was a number of meaningful metrics were developed to provide senior leadership a measure of how well 18th Air Force executes the war-fighting tanker missions for Air Mobility Command.

"This is a very important task we are performing for 18th Air Force," said Colonel LaMarche. "We have the opportunity to develop a new and innovative tanker roadmap which will directly impact the precision and velocity in delivering fuel and cargo efficiently and effectively whenever and wherever needed."

"Cradle-to-grave assessment of the tanker mission to eliminate process waste is a win-win situation for the wings, Air Mobility Command, and the Air Force," he said.

At the conclusion of the three day event, the team presented a road-map for tanker continuous process improvement and a way-ahead strategy to McConnell wing leadership.

"The team identified issues that are very difficult to tackle, but will provide long-term payoffs which are well worth the investment now," said Col. John Zazworsky, 22nd Air Refueling Wing vice-commander.

"This is hard work and may not happen tomorrow," said Colonel Zazworsky, referring to the consideration of constraints such as maintenance man-power. "But this continuous process improvement will bring some additional discipline that did not exist before. I'm really excited about this. The team has done some great work here and it's a big step forward."

Among the bases that participate in the event were McConnell, Kan., Fairchild, Wash., Grand Forks, N.D., MacDill, Fla., McGuire, N.J., Robins, Ga., and Travis Air Force Base, Calif.

Similar to this tanker EVSM, strategic airlift, tactical airlift, aero-medical evacuation, and VIP/special mission EVSM events will be held in various AMC locations in the upcoming weeks and will culminate with an 18th Air Force EVSM Capstone AFSO21 event in mid-December at Scott AFB, Ill.