Winds of change blowing at Mission Support Squadron

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Stephen Delgado
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  A Bob Dylan song from the 1960s proclaimed, "the times they are a changing." These words could be the anthem of the 56th Mission Support Squadron. 

"Presidential Budget Decision 720 levied a 40 percent reduction across the manpower and personnel career fields," said Capt. Matthew Dawson, 56th Mission Support Squadron Manpower and Personnel Flight chief. "As a result, the Air Force had to look at ways of changing its processes, so we are employing AFSO21 Lean principles. The Air Force realized there was not enough manpower, so consolidation and automation is the future focus in supporting and servicing our customers. We had to find and implement ways of working smarter." 

Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st century Lean principles will be vital as to how changes are implemented. 

"AFSO 21 helps us to step through our processes, identify and eliminate waste, develop new processes in line with the Air Force vision," Captain Dawson said. "We also need to develop tools to help educate our customers -- both internal and external. Our goal is to streamline all of the personnel programs at Luke. We want them to fit and to be the same from start to finish." 

The Base Level Service Delivery Model is the cornerstone to the reorganization and a concept that centralizes command support staff manning and services so that core personnel services to commanders and base personnel can be maintained, according to Captain Dawson. 

"BLSDM is the Air Force's vision of how we will preserve our ability to support commanders and base personnel despite deep cuts to Air Force personnel and communications career fields," said, Lt. Gen. Richard Newton III, Deputy Chief of Staff for Air Force Manpower, Personnel and Services. 

A key AFSO 21 principle is identifying non-value added items and eliminating them. One of the cornerstones to BLSDM will be consolidation, according to Captain Dawson. 

"BLSDM came into being in 2007," he said. "Air Force officials realized with the cuts, there wouldn't be enough people to accomplish the mission without making radical changes. As a result, the Air Force Chief of Staff decided that consolidation and automation would be the answer. We are above 75 percent, organizationally toward achieving these goals." 

The traditional way of doing business, with each squadron having an orderly room processing leave requests, enlisted performance reports, in-and-out processing and decorations has gone the way of the typewriter, according Staff Sgt. Nicole Eisenbarth, 56th MPS force management NCO in charge. 

What's more, the second vital cog of BLSDM is automation. 

The commander's dashboard, the automation piece of BLSDM, in conjunction with the Air Force Portal, are designed to eliminate a member's need to go to an office or talk to someone to make changes to their personnel information, submit a permanent-change-of-station request, seek retirement or separation retraining and to request training, according to Captain Dawson. 

"Automation is affording commanders and members a myriad of information at their fingertips," he said. "In addition to the automation efforts implemented by the Air Force Personnel Center, Luke has identified and implemented processes such as the assignments process to completely automate. Our goal is a paperless Air Force."
As with any profound change, there can be resistance to it. 

"Human nature is to resist change," Captain Dawson said. "It is incumbent that we identify and develop 'how-to's' for our internal and external customers. We have to advertise and educate our customers on how the new system will improve their ability to accomplish personnel programs and processes. Once people see how consolidation has eliminated and simplified the process, they'll be more accepting of the new way."
As with any new program or changes, training is of utmost importance. 

"We have improved our training and learned the process from A to Z," Sergeant Eisenbarth said. "It used to be in our career field, that you were proficient at one or two things, but now our staff learns every job, which in turn means better customer service. We have worked very hard to redesign and implement training programs internally to ensure the mission goals are met." 

No matter how many changes there are, customers can still get the help they need. 

"We have a satellite facility on the west side of the base," Captain Dawson said. "Anyone can get help if they are having a problem, or if they don't understand something. It is vital for all base personnel to know that we are here to help."