Smooth moves Published Dec. 17, 2010 By Ron Mullan Tinker Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- A value stream mapping process improvement event was held Dec. 6-8 at Boeing's Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Technology Center. The purpose of the event was to define the current state of the aircraft movement process between Tinker Air Force Base and the MROTC facility, and to make improvements to the process. According Michael Williams, event facilitator and 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group Transformation Office Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, the event brought together a diverse group of organizations including the 76th Maintenance Wing, 76th AMXG, 72nd Security Forces, Boeing Aircraft, Oklahoma City Fire and Police departments and EMSA. "From what we know, this is the first time that both private and public sectors have been involved in this type of event here at Tinker," he said. "Usually it's just an internal process with Air Force units only." While the actual aircraft movement takes about five minutes to clear Douglas Boulevard, the coordination phase is complicated, labor intensive and can take days and even weeks to set up. "If the ball gets dropped in one area," said Mr. Williams, "hundreds of man hours can be wasted." Before the team could be assembled to tackle the issues, a project charter had to be developed detailing the scope of the event and the goals to be attained. "The project charter is our bible," Mr. Williams said. "It keeps the team focused on the issue at hand and keeps outside issues from interfering with the process." Mr. Williams spent three to four weeks crafting the project charter with team leads Aaron Martinez, supervisor of the 76th AMXG Aircraft Business Development Office and Rick Ramsey, general manager of the Boeing MROTC facility. They defined the primary goals as increasing the efficiency of moving aircraft between the base and the MROTC, eliminating waste, reducing costs and standardizing the process. Having strong team leads and subject matter experts who are empowered to make decisions for their organizations can make all the difference in the outcome of an event. "If you don't have strong team leads," said Mr. Williams, "your event can fail quickly." Mr. Ramsey has been through this process before with Boeing and feels this event is special. "This one is particularly important to Tinker and Boeing because it is the first private-sector-public-sector event of this nature at Tinker," he said. "At the end of the day what we will have, is a more efficient, less costly, safer move process with less impact to the community in terms of road closure." Col. Doug Cato, 76th AMXG commander and project champion for the VSM event, feels that streamlining the aircraft moving process to be able to use Boeing's facility to work on aircraft, is a positive thing. "This is work we could not have taken on without the extra space," he said. "I see it as a win-win effort for everyone and a long term endeavor."