Team Grissom is committed to Process Improvement

Grissom has a new wing process manager, and he wants Airmen involved in process improvement.

“I’m looking for members who want to become certified in process improvement,” said Bryan Runion, 434th Air Refueling Wing process manager. “I’m asking anyone interested to contact me.

“The training is all done online now, and I can get members set up for it,” he added.

Runion also had a message for squadron leaders.
“If there are any issues which they believe may benefit from process improvement, I can work with them and facilitate those projects,” he said.

Runion took the position of wing process manager November 2019, and hit the ground running.

“One thing we’re currently working on is the speed of Deserving Airman commissions,” said Runion. “These can sometimes take over a year to go through, and while some of that is outside of our control, we’re looking at all the steps on our end and asking how can we get these Airmen to officer training faster?”

Another area Runion is investigating is the discharge process, he said.

“Often we’ll send discharge packages up to headquarters, and they’ll get sent back for one reason or another,” said Runion. “Having discharged members still showing up on our books can cause a number of problems, so we want that process to be as smooth and error-free as possible.”

Determining which processes to focus on improving all depends on the wing’s mission, said Runion.

“We recently had a strategic alignment event, where our leadership met to reevaluate the wing’s mission, vision, priorities and goals,” he said. “Out of that, we can figure out which areas would benefit the most from process improvement.

“We identified five areas to focus our efforts on,” Runion continued. “Two of them I’ve already mentioned and they’re already in the works, but we’ll also be looking at the process of approving benefits for members injured on duty, the way we go about performance reports, and finally, training for civilian supervisors.”

Though Runion may have a lot on his plate for someone only two months into the job, his 41 years of military experience have prepared him for the challenge, he said. Runion began his career as an aviation electronics technician for the Navy, and was commissioned as an officer after nine years to be a navigator on the P-3 Orion anti-submarine surveillance aircraft.

Runion came to Grissom in 1993 for two years as a maintenance officer, and then returned again in 2009 as the 434th Logistics and Readiness Squadron commander. Though his career would once again pull him away from Grissom, Runion always knew he wanted to return, he said.

“I was coming up on retirement, and the opportunity presented itself to come back to Grissom as the process improvement manager,” he said. “We’ve called it different things over the years but I have always been involved in process improvement in some way.

“As a commander, I always believed in listening to my troops, understanding their issues, and finding ways to improve,” he continued. “It’s something I have a heart for and I really believe it works.”

Contact Bryan Runion at 688-2290 or at bryan.runion.2@us.af.mil.

The 434th ARW is the largest KC-135R Stratotanker unit in the Air Force Reserve Command. The Citizen Airmen from the Hoosier Wing routinely deploy around the world in support of the Air Force mission.

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