Leaning, transforming the OC-ALC: second goal of strategic plan

Published May 1, 2008
By Brandice J. Armstrong
72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE -- Leaning and transforming the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center is the second of five goals in the OC-ALC Strategic Plan.
   Designed to map the center's future successes, the four other goals include securing the right workload, leading aircraft availability improvement program achievement, improving OC-ALC operations through the Defense Logistics Agency and the Air Force Global Logistics Support Agency and developing people ... better.
   "Leaning and transforming the center is really transforming the way we do business," said Maj. Gen. Loren Reno, OC-ALC commander. "It's recognizing, encouraging, stimulating and inspiring people to take change and make it happen."
   General Reno used an analogy about the recent success of welding technicians leaning a process to better illustrate his point.
   "They were so dissatisfied with a process that took three days with a 7 percent success rate, they, without a formal project," General Reno said, "wrote new tech data, received engineering approval for a new process that now doesn't take three days, it takes three hours and is now a 100 percent success rate.
   "This process is so good that the company that manufactures the engine asked our people to show them how they do it," the general said. "And one of our allies, a foreign nation's air force who repairs this engine in their country, asked us to send a team to their country to show them how we do it."
   Wade Wolfe, Transformation, Integration and Process Improvements Division chief with the Plans and Programs Directorate, who facilitated the Strategic Plan off-site conference last fall, agreed.
   "Leaning and transforming the center will allow us to eliminate waste at the center," Mr. Wolfe said. "We have phenomenal people at Tinker, it's just that we have some processes that need improvement. We want to take our phenomenal people and change our processes to accentuate the talent we have here at Tinker Air Force Base."
   Col. Evan Miller, OC-ALC Plans and Programs director, who helped outline the second goal, said there is no set timeline to get the objective accomplished. He said this objective like the remaining four will continually guide the center toward achieving success.
   "The goals will help guide us over the next five, 10, 15 or 20 years to make sure we're doing the right kinds of things," Colonel Miller said. "The neat thing about our strategic plan is it should be enduring and (we'll) continue to purse every one of those goals."