HomeNews

LRS evaluates quality one step at a time

  • Published
  • By Lois Walsh
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  If the commander of the 96th Logistics Readiness Squadron wants to know his unit's health, the Quality Assurance Office can give him the answer.

The QA office has taken on the challenge of keeping track of the squadron's vast operations in four main flights: Fuels Management, Materiel Management, Vehicle Management and Deployment and Distribution. Commander's special projects are also evaluated.

The office stood up Jan. 19, just 90 days after the Air Force directive to provide senior leadership and management direction for standardizing and verifying the accomplishment of the mission in accordance with DoD policy.

Robert Downing, QA Superintendent, and seven subject matter experts holding various LRS specialty codes, provide the functional proficiency to run a successful program. Mr. Downing's vehicle management and QAE expertise allows him to look objectively at LRS' processes. Reporting to the Chief of Compliance and Logistics Manager assures impartiality in the practices.

"Sometimes when someone is looking internally (at a process) it is not scrutinized at the same level as someone looking externally at a process," Mr. Downing said.

Similar in structure to an inspector general program or established aircraft maintenance inspections, the program promotes a culture of professional excellence and personal responsibility.

"The mindset we are trying to adopt is that we are the IG looking at your process. We've asked the flight chiefs to adopt that philosophy themselves," Mr. Downing said.

While LRS has always had internal self-inspection programs, the QA office follows up with surveillance to ensure standardized, repeatable processes are in place and performance evaluations to determine proficiency.

"Now we complete task evaluations to make sure individuals are proficient in their jobs and their skills match their training records," he said.

Mr. Downing said the biggest challenge in implementing the program was to remove the subjectivity from the assessment process in exchange for objectivity in process execution. He and his team accomplished that by building from scratch a database that is now the standard for Air Force Materiel Command bases. Other bases outside the command have adopted it as well.

"The data helps solidify our process and make it more effective," he said.

The database consolidates all the requirements mandated by the Air Force into one location. It follows the TDYs of LRS' heavily deployed career field where 40 percent of the available manpower is inspected every month and ensures each individual receives a minimum of one task evaluation annually. It keeps track of 1,995 checklist items, open findings and quarterly schedules. It also generates 31 reports that highlights the squadron's readiness.

According to Lt. Col. Christopher Holmes, 96th LRS commander, the QA office helps provide him, and the squadron, a sense of how well they are complying with directives, safety measures and regulations. It also serves as a good cross-check for his personnel, as they perform their duties, to make sure they are using the appropriate checklists and technical data.

"It also helps me with one of the components of my command philosophy: be inspection ready at all times. Considering we're moving towards limited to no notice inspections, the QA function helps make sure we're doing things right the first time, every time, so we will be ready for anyone to evaluate us," the colonel said.