New processes to help 412th TW deliver on-time every time
Article by Leigh Anne Bierstine
Public Affairs

This article originally appeared in the March 1, 2002 issue of Desert Wings, the publication of the Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC) at Edwards Air Force Base. It appears on the AGI website with the permission of the AFFTC. For more information, please visit their website at www.edwards.af.mil.

3/1/02 – EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – A year-long re-engineering effort by the 412th Test Wing is gaining momentum with the rollout of two new management strategies aimed at helping the test wing better meet the needs of its operational customers.

The test wing's Project Management Directorate is implementing a new bid and proposal process along with a new method of managing the test wing's various test projects. Both are designed to standardize the way test projects and the resources that support them are managed across the test wing. In turn, it will provide Edwards leadership with an accurate, big-picture view of its test workload. The ultimate goal is to make all of the test teams at Edwards more accountable to customers across the Defense Department.

Gearing to the customer
"Our customers are the operational users of the systems we test here," said Col. Steve Cameron, commander of the 412th Test Wing. "We can't make promises to these customers unless we know our true test capacity and that means understanding exactly where and how our test resources are being used."

According to Dennis Hines, director of Project Management at the test wing, past customer surveys indicate that while the quality of test work is high, stewardship of customer dollars could be improved. Therefore, his team was charged with transforming the test wing into a reliable supplier of timely, accurate and relevant information so that operational customers can make informed decisions about the test work they need completed.

Both the new bid and proposal and managed projects processes are a result of the business process reengineering efforts that were kicked off last spring by the 412th Test Wing. The new processes are supported by a management solution that first proved its muscle in the private sector.

In August, the Air Force Flight Test Center, home of the 412th, signed a contract with the Avraham Y. Goldratt Institute to help implement the Theory of Constraints Project Management. Experts from the Goldratt Institute set up shop inside test wing headquarters to train personnel on how to make this new project management technique and its software work for them.

Joining reengineered processes with this new project tool enables the test wing to tear down the walls that exist between its functional parts, Hines said.

"The Air Force is transforming, and we want to go where the Air Force is going." Hines said, "This is a real opportunity for us to become trusted and honest brokers of information and deliver to our customers on-time, every time."

Improving turn-around time
The first process, bid and proposal, is a variation of the way the test wing answers its customers with estimates for test support. Under the old process customers could wait up to 60 days to hear from the test wing once a request for test support was submitted.

"If you took your car to a mechanic and he told you he couldn't have an estimate for 60 days, you would not stand for it," Hines said.

"You expect accurate cost estimates, so that you can make an intelligent decision about where to take your work - our customers expect the same service."

The new process builds a customer estimate with inputs from each Flight Test Center organization. Different from the past, is an early planning session by team members to validate estimates, confirm all customer requirements have been addressed, and draft the proposal. The intent of this early planning session is to reduce the overall amount of time spent in the process with no reduction in accuracy. The goal is a reduction from 60 days average, to something on the order of two to seven days, depending on when the customer needs the information.

To date, the process has been used on six small projects including the F-15 Miniature Satellite Launch Vehicle project at the Global Power Fighter Combined Test Force. Larger and more complex projects will be attempted as the process matures and bugs are ironed out, said Debra Erdman, bid and proposal process owner.

"We are taking baby steps and are focused on getting through the small projects first," said Erdman. "It isn't just about doing things faster, it's about producing a quality product that meets our customer's needs."

Synchronizing test projects
Once customers sign on under the new bid and proposal process, they will continue to benefit from the test wing's reengineering efforts. At the heart of the reengineering effort, is the new manage projects process, which focuses on the way the test wing manages its various test projects.

The process combines five common-sense elements into one system. All five complement each other to ultimately allow the Air Force Flight Test Center to deliver each project with full content on budget and on schedule, Hines said.

The first element is a way to stagger the start of a new project to minimize interference with ongoing projects. The second is a planning method that ensures all the tasks for a project are sequenced properly in relation to one another. The third element ensures key resources typically in short supply are sequenced to prevent those resources from being tasked to more than one project at a time. This is followed by a fourth policy that encourages each person assigned to a project to work on a task from start to finish with as little switching from one task or project to another as possible. The final element is a way to manage a collection of projects in such a way that project-to-project conflicts can be quickly and fairly resolved.

"If I can concentrate on the job at hand, then maybe I can get down to working an 8-hour day," said George Stufflebeam, project manager and member of the process implementation team. "I'll be able to start a project, finish it, and move on to the next project instead of having six projects working at once."

This new system is being implemented at the Global Power Fighter Combined Test Force. Once the projects at this test force are up and running using the new system, the plan is to deploy the system across the entire 412th Test Wing, Hines said.

A radical change
"This is a radical change to the way we currently work here," Hines said. "By synchronizing all of our projects, we are gaining real resource accountability. When a new customer requests support, we will be able to look across all of our test activity and determine if we have the resources to support a new project. If we can't support a certain project right now, we will be able to say exactly when we can."

Hines added that once the new processes are fully implemented across the test wing, it should increase the amount of test work completed using the same resources available today.

"We have a very dedicated workforce," Hines said. "This, coupled with these new processes, will enable us to take on more business and still meet our customer commitments. Ultimately, this means will be contributing more to national defense."

Having a firm grasp on where the test wing's resources are focused will contribute directly to projects being completed on time and within budget, noted Don Johnson, the manage projects implementation manager. Since coming on board last August, teams from the Goldratt Institute have been teaching test wing personnel to plan a test project from finish to start verses the more traditional start to finish approach. This places a special emphasis on a project's due date.

Keeping promises
"When a commercial business promises a product delivery to a customer, that customer expects that product to be delivered within the costs and schedule they've agreed to," Johnson said. "We have to operate the same way. When we make promises to a customer, we have to keep them."

Cameron also points out the new processes are aimed at making good use of operational test assets. Flight test programs often require aircraft from Air Mobility Command and other users who rely on the aircraft to support real-world missions.

"We are failing the owners of these operational resources if we can't tell them exactly when we will be working on their aircraft and when that aircraft will be returned." Cameron said. "We have to be able to keep our promises to the warfighters."

While both new processes are still in their infancy stages, Hines and his team expect the new bid and proposal and managed projects processes to be implemented across the test wing by the end of fiscal year 2004. To date, more than 70 people have attended an overview or even more detailed training sessions. The Edwards' TOC team and senior leaders agree the theory of constraints methodology is not a miracle cure.

"In the end, it's still about the people working within the system," Cameron said. "Our collective abilities to adapt, customize, and mold this methodology to meet our unique needs - that's the hard work that lies ahead. The operational users in the field are depending on us getting our work done in the most efficient manner, so they can continue to get the world's best aerospace technology in their hands when they need it."