AIRSpeed cut

Jack Braun (foreground) and Mike DelRosal conduct a basic AIRSpeed class for artisans with the E-2/C-2 and Multi-line programs. Photo by Bill Bartkus

Employees to be trained in the rudiments of AIRSpeed

By Bill Bartkus
NAVAIR Depot North Island

CORONADO, Calif. – AIRSpeed has improved the way NAVAIR conducts business, and within two years, everyone at NAVAIR Depot North Island here will have been trained in the fundamentals of the program. That’s the goal!

“The training program incorporates Lean, Theory of Constraints, and Six Sigma,” said Mike DelRosal, a Depot AIRSpeed facilitator. He and Jack Braun, as team leaders, teach the classes at the Depot’s AIRSpeed office. “We have led over 18 different teams in the components area over the last two years.”

DelRosal said that he and Braun learned that they needed to broaden their base of knowledge.

Cmdr. T. C. Dowden agreed. “These men showed aptitude for not only leading the teams they have, but for helping other people to understand what was going on.” Dowden heads the Depot AIRSpeed office.

“Mike and Jack didn’t have just the aptitude, but they had the enthusiasm,” Dowden said. “When you put these two ingredients together, it was only natural to have them join us in the office in the employment effort in getting the training out there to Depot employees.”

DelRosal said that once members complete the class, “they go out and participate in teams to implement AIRSpeed across the Depot.”

According to the program’s charter, AIRSpeed implements and inculcates AIRSpeed tools and methodologies into the Depot culture using a systematic approach. The charter also stipulates that AIRSpeed events will be scheduled and coordinated across all avenues in the Depot, and the program’s progress will be tracked and steps taken to ensure continuing improvement.

Training incorporates foundation and immediate deployment. The latter is a Kaizan event, Kaizan being the Japanese word for indicating a continuous improvement event. Japanese industry has employed Lean, TOC and Six Sigma for years, especially among its auto industry.

Lean eliminates waste, TOC eliminates bottlenecks, and Six Sigma increases quality. In theory, AIRSpeed delivers a product to the customer cheaper, faster, and better.

AIRSpeed incorporates four levels of training: basic, advanced, leader and manager. “The first three are taught in progression,” Dowden said, “and the manager’s course is taught separately. There is an instructor level, the commander said, “but the only persons who will reach this level will be the masters. They will be able to take their experience combined with what they have learned in the classroom setting and go to other places and see how the process is accomplished elsewhere and teach others.”

DelRosal said masters are persons who have led teams, and who have demonstrated the ability to teach and impart the information that they have learned and have been successful in leading teams. “Masters are those who have shown a reduction in cost, reduced turnaround times, and other qualities,” he said. “A success story!”

Braun mentioned that no one gave the AIRSpeed office a guide or syllabus to follow for training. “We took the standards that are accomplished with Lean,” he said, “and each time a group of consultants performed an instructional period for us, we took the best of what the consultants had and incorporated that into a training syllabus that we had, and we combined Lean with TOC, and Six Sigma at a basic level.”

This method gave DelRosal and Braun a broad AIRSpeed foundation course.

Classes are two-days’ long, “but our plan is to operate two classes concurrently for a class size of 30 people each,” DelRosal said.

“Our goal is to have all 3,000 people in the Depot trained at the recruit level in two years,” Dowden said. “It’s a big goal and one that we will be working very hard to accomplish.” The Programs will have the jurisdiction to schedule personnel for training. Proposed schedules will be available to the Programs in early February. Capt. Tim Trainer, Depot commanding officer, and Capt. Fred Cleveland, executive officer, set the goal, Dowden stated.

AIRSpeed’s certification levels are recruit, apprentice, journeyman, and master. All levels are performance-based to ensure that the person seeking certification has successful practice experience, and the Depot gets a return on its investment.

All courses are integrated “with learning and doing,” Braun said. Employees are required to work a project, not just sit and listen to DelRosal and Braun.

DelRosal and Braun have another goal. They want to go on the road. “We want to bring classes to Camp Pendleton and Miramar, and our other offs-sites,” DelRosal said. “We want to make ourselves available to our IMCs (Integrated Maintenance Concept managers) because it’s difficult for them to come to our office and spend two days of training for basic AIRSpeed training.”

DelRosal said that a deputy program manager has already approached his office to bring AIRSpeed training to his off-site area.

Said Braun, “We have more requests to train employees than we have time to teach. But everyone will receive basic AIRSpeed training.”

NAVAIR provides cost-wise readiness and dominant maritime combat power to make a great Navy and Marine Corps team better.