MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Members of Team MacDill’s leadership attended a senior leadership course at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, Sept. 29-30, 2016, that provided an overview of how Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) is used to define problems, manage performance and strategically align organizational goals.
The course introduced CPI concepts and covered internal control measures and why measuring process performance is critical to conducting a mission successfully while being efficient with resources.
“CPI is a suite of methodologies used to improve processes that include: Lean, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints and Business Process Re-engineering,” said Dr. Phil Chansler, faculty instructor with Air Education and Training Command, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. “These CPI tools force you to take a different perspective, and they setup tools for leadership at the strategic level to engage in being effective and efficient with remaining resources.”
According to the course content, Lean eliminates waste and creates a more streamlined workflow. Six Sigma, is a statistically based methodology that focuses on identifying and controlling variation. Theory of Constraints is a process that improves productivity by addressing system constraints. Finally, Business Process Re-engineering is completely disregarding the old way and creating a new process around a different approach.
The lessons also reviewed the cultural shift toward CPI and how to work toward developing a CPI mindset within organizations by using lean tools such as a structured approach to solving problems.
“I enjoyed the refresher with regards to continuous improvement,” said Chief Master Sgt. Richard Lepage, superintendent of the 6th Maintenance Group. “The biggest memory jogger for me was that buy-in is critical and every organization has a customer. Meeting the needs of both the customer and the stakeholders is what defines success or failure for an organization.”
Maximizing Air Force resources and increasing efficiency in areas concerning people, time and money are vital to the success of the mission.
The course included 12-hours of classroom instruction and a four-hour immersion tour to an industry that provided first-hand exposure to CPI mindset and tools.
MacDill partnered with the Tampa Port Authority for the industry immersion tour. The itinerary included a combined leadership luncheon with three guest speakers. Among the list of speakers was Paul Anderson, President and CEO of Port Tampa Bay, who shared his progressive cooperation vision and executive level leadership approach. The immersion concluded with a site tour of the port.
“The goal of the industry visit was to expose the group to an operation that uses CPI methods as an integral aspect of their business,” stated Ginny Modglin CPI Program Manager with the 6th Force Support Squadron. “An increasing number of operations in virtually all industries, including medical, service, manufacturing and many more, are using CPI methods to differentiate their business process from others.”
Colonels, General Schedule (GS)-14s (or equivalent), chief master sergeants and squadron commanders were among the 41 personnel in attendance.
“We are trying to move the Air Force toward a leaner organization. If you change the way you operate, you are going to have to change some of the processes,” said Chansler “This course is meant to, in a short amount of time, provide insight on how to utilize tools set forth by CPI. My goal is for them to walk away from this class and discover what they can do today to change how they look at their mission accomplishment.”