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Sabers win Innovation Madness with Process Improvements

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  • By Tech. Sgt. Staci Miller, 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
  • 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany --  After coming in second place two years in a row, the 52nd Fighter Wing took a long look at last year’s first-place results and determined to do better.

As it turns out, the wing didn’t just do better than last year’s champs, they tripled the results.

The 52nd FW won the U.S. Air Forces in Europe–Air Forces Africa’s third annual Innovation Madness contest, beating out seven other wings that vied for cash prizes to further improve their bases.

Innovation Madness is an event which recognizes the new ideas, concepts and processes of the previous year that saved the Air Force money and man-hours. The 52nd FW submitted 62 innovations, saving the Air Force more than $18 million and 145,000 man-hours.

For comparison, last year’s winners, the 48th FW at RAF Lakenheath in England saved the Air Force $7.8 million and 38,000 man-hours.

Capt. Stefan Choquette, USAFE Innovation Transformation Office command transformation financial analyst, made a trip to Spangdahlem Air Base to see what makes the 52nd FW different.

“We came down here to access the training and culture,” said Choquette. “Spangdahlem has demonstrated they have a great continuous process improvement program and we want to learn how to replicate it.”

Creating 62 innovations in just one year starts by educating Airmen and fostering a culture of improvement across the wing. The Spangdahlem CPI team is focused on the growth of new ideas and provides classroom process improvement training which spreads the passion of innovation across the wing.

“Process improvement training, or PIT, is an introduction to the 8-step problem solving model, teaching students the basics of steps 1-3,” said Master Sgt. Andrew Kehl, 52 FW wing process manager. “The course also teaches students how to map out a process and see waste immediately.”

PIT challenges Airmen to look around their work centers and find processes that could be improved.

“The hardest thing is to acknowledge you have a problem, the second is to actually find the time to fix it,” Kehl said. “We understand that everyone is doing more with less right now, but if you look at the wider picture, saving 20 minutes per day, per person, saves a huge chunk of time at the end of the year. This is time that goes directly back to our Airmen.”

The CPI team aims to change the way Airmen of all levels look at problems.

“Forget the saying, ‘don’t come to me with a problem, come to me with a solution,’” Kehl said. “Come to me with a problem and we’ll map it out and look at the data. We want to find the root cause, not just put a bandage on it.”

The CPI team, with help from Airmen of all levels, spent the year creating process improvements which now stretch all across the base. The 52nd Medical Group introduced a virtual clinic, saving patients a combined 82,000 miles in driving time. The wing housing office revitalized the process of renting a home by combining four agencies and eliminating redundant tasks. The fire department debuted a digital business platform that is now being used across the Air Force at 17 other bases.

“I love watching young Airmen makes changes that impact every single Saber,” Kehl said. “We have multiple events that are literally touching the lives of everyone on this base and sometimes beyond that.”

So, what is it that makes the 52nd FW different?

“Spangdahlem’s culture is permeating from the ground up,” Choquette said. “That’s only possible because they’re facilitated by a great leadership team. It’s obvious wing leadership has bought in and it’s spread to the groups and squadrons. Spangdahlem is not just throwing solutions at the wall and hoping they stick, they’re finding refined solutions that are efficient.”

By taking home first in the 2016 Innovation Madness Contest and winning two out of the three individual rounds, the 52nd Fighter Wing won $160,000 to be used toward unfunded mission requirements.
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