By Vicky Falcón
NAVAIR Public Affairs Office

The first test of NAVAIR AIRSpeed within the service environment at NAVAIR headquarters is a success, according to both those who are implementing the pilot process, and the program offices who are seeing the results.

In a pilot test hosted by NAVAIR’s Business/Financial Management Community, the approval time for processing a NAVAIR funding document was cut by 85% – from four weeks, to less than four days.

Though AIRSpeed is an overwhelming success in the depot environments, the outcomes of applying those processes to the intellectual capital within headquarters were unknown. So far, though, the results are encouraging.

In May 2004, the B/FMC formed a NAVAIR AIRSpeed pilot project to respond to customer concerns that Reimbursable Funding Documents were taking too long to be approved. The cycle time of a funding document directly impacts the ability of field personnel to efficiently meet the needs of their customer to support the fleet. At that point, the average processing time was 28 days.

Since the main goal of the pilot was to reduce the approval time for funding documents, the Lean tool (which is used to reduce production/cycle time) was chosen from the three NAVAIR AIRSpeed productivity tools – Lean, Six Sigma and Theory of Constraints.

Two NAVAIR program offices (PMA 209 – Air Combat Electronics and PMA 251 - Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment) were selected as the test groups for this pilot study. A team was then formed with representatives from the PMAs, their field activities, and the B/FM Community.

“We wanted to work with both a small and a large program office that has multiple appropriations and varying locations that accept reimbursable work,” said Joel Carey, NAVAIR AIRSpeed Deployment Champion.

“The program managers were behind us,” said Carey. “They had heard positive comments from their leadership so we had good level-one support and that helped us a lot!”

But not everyone was enthusiastic, said Carey. “Some of the team members’ attitudes reflected their feeling that this pilot was just another ‘flavor of the month’ program.”

But their attitudes changed very quickly. “Our team soon recognized that this is not another passing productivity initiative that’s destined to fail,” he said. “This is not another drill – instead, they see it as value-added to them.”

The turning point came during a “Kaizen” event. Kaizen means continuous improvement, and is an approach used within NAVAIR AIRSpeed. During Kaizen a repetition of five phases (define, measure, analyze, improve and control) are used to eliminate waste and increase efficiency.

According to Janet Cratty, Other Procurement, Navy B/FM with PMA 251, defining the task and mapping it out was the most difficult part.

“None of us could actually document the process (for approval of a funding document),” she said. “That was a huge task because there were so many multiple reviews – so many people ‘touching’ the document.”

Kathy Dagenhart, B/FM for PMA 209 agrees. “We looked at a process with many players who have the opportunity to either approve or reject a funding document. Each player is an expert in their particular field; they look for specific information in order for the document to be approved,” she said. “We found that there were many opportunities for the document to be rejected, which resulted in it returning back to the beginning of the process to be readdressed by the same players multiple times.”

The original workflow required more than 30 steps (including 12 reviews for approval) and had an average turn-around time of 28 days. The Lean process now requires just 18 steps and only three reviews for approval – a process that can be accomplished in under four days.

By standardizing and streamlining the process, communication has dramatically improved between the comptrollers, B/FMs and the PMAs.

“Standardization is so important,” said Dagenhart. “It engages the customer up front in the process and drastically reduces funding document rejections. It’s a real success for everyone involved,” she added.

“Now we understand what the next person is doing,” said Cratty. “We understand the full cycle that goes into the work flow.”

Michelle Fore also works in PMA 209 as a budget analyst. “We anticipated reducing cycle time within funding execution, but we didn’t realize how much we were going to learn from the other individuals in the room, with respect to their internal processes,” she said. “We’re used to working in our own environments.”

Though the test was successful there is still a lot of additional work for those involved, including continual refinement of the newly developed reimbursable funding document process.

Fore is also part of a team developing a training package for other PMAs called a Work Assignment Agreement. The agreement will then be deployed to help implement the lessons learned from their test.

“The proof of our success is that other Integrated Product Teams are now coming to us, demanding the same process,” said Carey. “Not only have we reduced cycle time and reduced work for employees, but the end result is that the warfighter is getting the product sooner. That’s what it’s all about.”

For more information about NAVAIR AIRSpeed, go to the Web Site at http://www.navair.navy.mil/navairairspeed/.