OC-ALC master’s program builds leaders, savings Published July 8, 2016 By John Parker Staff Writer TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Six mid-career Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex professionals graduated from ALC-sponsored master's degree programs that simultaneously helped to potentially save millions of dollars for the complex. Resources Section Chief Shaun Coffman with the 76th Maintenance Support Group called his experience professionally and personally challenging. "This whole program is about changing the culture and changing the way of thinking to more of a process-improvement culture than it already is," Mr. Coffman said. "They invested in us to make the Air Force better. We brought back what we learned, and we want to multiply that invesment by a hundred." Mr. Coffman, Tracy Mackerelle, chief of the analysis and integration section of the 76th Propulsion Maintenance Group, and Brian Clark, 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group (Special Projects), earned master's degrees last December in business operational excellence from Ohio State University. Kevin Higgs, flight chief with the 76th Software Maintenance Group, Shoun Thomas, section chief with the 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group, and Wade Palmer, commodities flight chief with the 553rd Commodities Maintenance Group, received University of Tennessee-Knoxville master's degrees in aerospace and defense business administration. The candidates were chosen through a rigorous competitive selection process, first by OC-ALC leadership, followed by detailed applications, interviews and conference calls to be accepted as master's degree candidates. The OC-ALC pays all expenses in the one-year degree programs. In return, the candidates commit to a multi-year contract to remain Department of Defense employees, work their full-time jobs while studying and are challenged to deliver a project that saves at least a million dollars for the complex. Ms. Mackerelle's project involved high recycles/rework increasing total cycle times in the fluorescent penetrant inspection jet engine repair shop. "We were able to take our engineers and planners and build a team to start going through our processes to see what we could eliminate under the technical guidance," Ms. Mackerelle said. "We reduced rework/recycles by over 14,000 steps which in turn reduced flowdays and material." The graduates said group collaboration was vital to their projects, and they were thankful for their team members' invaluable help. "We were in a way just facilitators pushing and teaching them what we were learning on the journey," Mr. Coffman said. "We all agree what we did couldn't be done without the huge contributions of our teams." Mr. Thomas said the master's degree experiences helped them build personal leadership skills. "It helped us to look at the enterprise and how things interact -- business processes, manufacturing processes -- and how beneficial small changes are to actually producing aircraft and other components at the complex," Mr. Thomas said. Carla Melcher, the OC-ALC's chief of workforce development and training operations, said the master's program's impact on the complex is tremendous. The next application period will open in 2017. "The graduations of University of Tennessee and Ohio State master's degree students are contingent on their leading successful continuous improvement projects in their workplace," Ms. Melcher said. "Not only have these projects resulted in cost savings, cost avoidance and inventory reductions for the OC-ALC, they have increased continuous process improvement enthusiasm and support across the maintenance complex. OC-ALC's strategy is to infuse the workforce with 'lean thought leaders.' These programs are certainly helping us achieve that objective."