Leaders get 'lean' with Green Belt training

Published Dec. 13, 2007
By Kandis West
72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE -- The commander for Air Force Materiel Command has said that Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century (AFSO 21) is a mindset and a change in behavior.
    Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center senior leaders are changing their behavior and the culture of the OC-ALC - one Greenbelt class at a time.
   Greenbelt training instructor Michael Kakhta said the concepts are basic.
"We are going back to classic functions of what makes a business work," he said. "We are fixing processes; they already know how to fix parts."
   The purpose of the Greenbelt training is to develop individuals to lead process improvements. The training also teaches participants to effectively use tools like Six Sigma, a method to eliminate variation and standardize a process and lean initiatives designed to eliminate waste or non-value added steps from a process.
   The training emphasizes a data-driven approach to problem solving using several key concepts like value stream mapping, a tool used to identify all steps of a process and the time it takes to complete those steps, cause and effect analysis and basic statistics.
   "Our job as leaders and managers is to remove barriers so our guys can be productive," said Wade Wolfe, chief of transformation, integration and process improvements for Plans and Programs.
   The training consist of 14 classes over a four-month period in which participants apply the skills they learned by working a real-world project in teams of four. The average project time is 40-50 hours outside the classroom in addition to regular duties.
   Maj. Gen. Loren Reno, OC-ALC commander, and the senior leaders that are participating in the current Greenbelt training, tackled a variety of problems.
   General Reno's team was tasked with reducing the time of preparing read-ahead materials. On average, it took the team more than 11 hours to produce the read-ahead material per day. Through statistical data, the team developed a plan to reduce the time to four hours by making the process electronic.
   By eliminating the paper process, there will be an estimated cost savings of $1,200 a year for toner and paper alone. The team also found it was quicker and easier to make corrections electronically than on paper.
   Mr. Wolfe said the process improvements and Greenbelt projects don't have to save millions of dollars, but simply make a process more effective and efficient.
"It's not one project that saves a million dollars; it's a million projects that save one dollar," Mr. Wolfe said.
   He said the goal of the Greenbelt training class is not to charter a formal project for every improvement, but to get people to automatically think of how they can improve things.
   "Eventually, the culture will be engrained into their minds," Mr. Wolfe said.
   The first Greenbelt training class was in 2004. The center was sending maintenance workers all over the country to get training on process improvements. Travel expenses were costly and the training was not standardized.
   Team Tinker leaders decided to partner with the Lean Institute Training Program at the University of Oklahoma to host a standard training program at Tinker.
Since 2004, more than 85 percent of senior leaders group-level or higher have been trained.
   "Changing the culture starts at the top," said Larry Fisher, OC-ALC Plans and Programs.
   Mr. Wolfe said the next class will consist of an equal amount of supervisors and non-supervisors as the focus begins to shift to non-leadership positions.