Here, there, and more: supporting transformation, analysis, and deployments.(Air Force Logistics Management Agency)

So how did AFLMA maintain, and in fact increase, its level of performance while deploying half the staff? It turns out the staff at AFLMA practice what they preach. Part of what AFLMA brings to the fight is the ability to understand and, more importantly, apply AFSO21 and other LEAN practices along with the ability to critically analyze data to make informed decisions. One of the Agency's first targets focused on its core--the process of how studies are accomplished. By conducting numerous efforts focused on fine-tuning the study process, from project acceptance to completion, Agency members streamlined the management overhead and introduced procedures to ensure each project stayed on course.

As I returned from the past year in Afghanistan I wondered what the rest of Air Force Logistics Management Agency (AFLMA) was doing while I was chewing dirt with the Army and Marines. Surely, those of us deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan had far fuller plates than those who remained home. Expecting to hear stories about burger bums and the strain of final reports, officer and enlisted performance reports, deadlines, and so forth, I was amazed at what the crew back home at Gunter Annex accomplished. Oftentimes we deploy and think nothing else is happening while forgetting someone is still back keeping the home fires burning, and in this case, burning brightly.

When I arrived at the AFLMA in 2005 we were exempt from deployments in order to meet our assigned mission of delivering robust, tailored answers to the most difficult and complex logistics problems. We are a think-tank leveraging a broad range of functional, analytical, and scientific expertise to produce innovative solutions to problems. We also design new or improved concepts, methods, systems, or policies that improve peacetime readiness and build war-winning logistics capabilities. Supporting those efforts are people across the spectrum of Air Force specialties. Armed with a broad range of education and skills, they dig into and solve difficult logistics questions and present executable solutions. In my 23 years of wearing an Air Force uniform, I'm not sure I've ever been in a position anywhere else where I have the time, resident expertise, and resources to do the homework required to tackle these critical questions and provide professional analysis and workable solutions.

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In 2005, AFLMA completed 14 improvement studies, 29 consulting projects, 3 Requirements Team studies, and 1 operational guide for our customers. Not represented in these numbers are the various inputs we provide on documents, sister Service efforts concerning agile combat support (ACS) and the then emerging effort to support the Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS). We did all this with a manpower pool of 40 military, 10 civilians, and a talented group of contractors. Except for the standard temporary duty (TDY) assignments and a smattering of support TDY's, we were not tasked for deployments until the late fall of 2005.

In 2007 AFLMA completed 16 improvement studies (includes 2 wargames studies) and 30 consulting projects. Of the 46 studies and projects, 7 focused on Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st' Century (AFSO21) and 5 on ECSS. These additional locus areas added to the education and expertise requirements each AFLMA member must have to be effective. To meet these challenges, AFLMA initiated aggressive training in LEAN, AFSO21, and the latest process transformation courses. Looking at the results, it was obvious the workload had increased along with expectations of performance. As is common across the Air Force, many of the logistics readiness officers assigned to AFLMA were tasked with 6-month or 365-day TDYs keeping roughly 50 percent of our 21Rs on the road.

The additional challenges of maintaining continuity on detailed studies and specialized expertise were added with the continuous manpower changes. In fact, I was surprised at the number of AFLMA members who joined me in just Afghanistan alone, much less those who were ...