GRISSOM AIR RESERVE BASE, Ind. -- Grissom’s continuous process improvement team held an event to discuss problems found within the administrative discharge packages process.
The team meets when problems are found within a processes. Such problems could be taking too long, including too many steps or other factors making it harder to achieve a desired result.
The team consists of representation from command staff and other agencies who work together to find a solution.
“As we identify problems within the wing, we set up CPI events to address the problem,” said Lt. Col. Melissa Von Hacker, 434th Logistics Readiness Squadron commander. “We work through the problem to find root causes and countermeasures of how to address those problems and a solution of the future state of where we want to go.”
A problem was recently identified with the administrative discharge package process taking too long and being inaccurate. The team worked throughout the week to come up with a solution and presented it to Col. Larry Shaw, 434th Air Refueling Wing commander.
For the wing, from January 2019 to July 2020 the administrative discharge packages were below the required completion and accuracy rate, said Von Hacker.
Von Hacker seemed hopeful towards the solution the team had come up with and mentioned how long it should take before the changes will be seen.
“We’ll reevaluate every three months from here on out to see where we’re at, but you’ll see when they start taking these actionable items and start implementing them,” said Von Hacker. “We should see, within the first three months, big improvement with accuracy and the timeline.”
Von Hacker talked on her previous experience with the continuous process improvement program.
“The last CPI event we had was on the qualified training rate,” said Von Hacker. “In that one we raised the qualified training rate by 10 percent. So, when we do these events there is a long term effect of the outcome.”