SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- Innovation Madness kicks off March 13 for the third installment of USAFE-AFAFRICA's unique awards program meant to stimulate a culture of innovation around the command.
Last year, Saber Nation just missed the gold, bringing home second place honors while the 48th Fighter Wing at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, won the championship prize. This year, the wing declared most innovative will receive $150,000 to be used toward unfunded mission requirements.
Sabers have worked hard all year to overtake Lakenheath as the maddest innovators. During 2016, they saved the wing $18 million dollars and more than 145 thousand man-hours by creating 62 innovations.
“We’ve created 34 percent more innovations and have doubled the man-hours saved when compared to last year,” said Master Sgt. Andrew Kehl, 52nd Civil Engineer Squadron Innovation and Transformation superintendent. “Units are clearly fostering a culture of innovation and challenging inefficiencies.”
To create these innovations and recognize areas in their work centers that need improvement, Airmen use the Continuous Process Improvement program.
“The CPI program is an ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. These efforts can seek "incremental" improvement over time or "breakthrough" improvement all at once”, Kehl said. “Processes are constantly evaluated and improved in the light of their efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility.”
The program only works because Airmen lead the way by believing in the power of innovation.
“Airmen are at the tactical level, performing the processes; therefore, they witness the problems and issues,” Kehl said. “The application of CPI principles enables Airmen to integrate continuous improvement into day-to-day operations across the full spectrum of Air Force operations.”
Tech. Sgt. Megan Lundgren, 726th Airlift Mobility Squadron production superintendent and unit training manager, used CPI tools to find multiple redundancies within her squadron’s training program. She eliminated unnecessary training and saved her unit more than 60 man-hours.
“We always want to get the job done, and as we discover more efficient methods to do so, it proves how much we strive for excellence,” Lundgren said. “It may be a matter of doing something slightly different or implementing an entirely new system. Regardless, we’re devoted to innovation.”
Sabers can get in on the madness and help Spangdahlem earn the honors of most innovative by visiting www.facebook.com/hqusafe after March 13 to watch and “like” the wing’s 60-second highlight reel. The wing with the most Facebook likes will earn points toward the competition.
The overall Innovation Madness champion will be announced April 4, 2017.