By Vicky Falcon
NAVAIR Headquarters Public Affairs Office

NAVAIR Reserve Program (NRP) personnel have a history of working side-by-side with those in the program office to work on special projects. During the development of individual unit annual action plans last year it became apparent to NRP leadership how focused their customers throughout NAVAIR had become on the NAVAIR AIRSpeed initiative.

With that in mind, an NRP National Project was formed to support AIRSpeed in general. On occasion, when NAVAIR has a major challenge that needs special attention, the NRP will create a national project team, pulling resources from various units to address that challenge. In this case, the NRP AIRSpeed has nearly 50 reservists available who could offer their industry experience as mentors and coaches if needed.

Members of NRP AIRSpeed come from a variety of industries, including Dell, Microsoft, Intel, Boeing, Raytheon, IBM and Cisco Systems. The group includes industry Black Belt and Lean Six Sigma experts, as well as industry Green Belts and ISO specialists.

“We already had units in Jacksonville and Cherry Point helping with AIRSpeed at the depot level,” said CDR Ken Weinstein, NRP AIRSpeed Deputy. “We also have units working on Enterprise AIRSpeed.” With the inception of the national project, NRP is able to pull together participants from multiple units to assist NAVAIR in more focused AIRSpeed efforts.

“The benefit to NAVAIR is that we offer NRP officers as mentors who have a combination of industry, NAVAIR acquisition and Lean Six Sigma experience,” said Weinstein.

Several NRP AIRSpeed members have already had an impact on current NAVAIR AIRSpeed projects. Navy Reservist LCDR Chris Camacho is a member of the NRP who works as an industry Black Belt (Lean Six Sigma expert) with GE Aircraft Engines. He assisted during a Kaizen project within AIR-2.0, and also worked with Bill Diaduk, software team lead for AIR-4.5.9.2 and currently an AIRSpeed Black Belt working on a project called “Standardization of Sensor Performance Modeling and Analysis.”

“Chris helped me in a couple of ways,” said Diaduk. “First, he helped me with a project selection workshop, and then he offered some great guidance during a team meeting for my BB project.

“His advice was excellent,” he added. “He is a GE-trained Black Belt, but he understands the Navy and what we’re talking about. He was trained slightly different than us, so he gave me a different perspective on how to proceed with my project. It was great to hear his encouragement.”

Bill Wiesemann, Operations Research Analyst in AIR-4.10, has spent the last two summers (and more) working with NRP AIRSpeed member LCDR Thor Osteboe to implement AIRSpeed to improve business practices within the Warfare Analysis Department. Osteboe, who is a Black Belt in the Supply Chain Operations Division at WW Grainger Inc., spent his two-week reserve active duty with AIR-4.10 the last two years. LCDR Carl Vause, another NRP AIRSpeed member and Lean expert working in corporate strategy at 3M, joined him for one week in 2004.

“In providing Lean and Six Sigma training to AIR-4.10 personnel at both China Lake and Patuxent River, we have significantly increased our personnel awareness and buy-in to AIRSpeed initiatives,” said Wiesemann. “While reviewing the existing business practices (Osteboe and Vause) identified shortfalls and developed simple processes and tools enabling improved oversight and situational awareness to 4.10 leadership.”

“Additionally,” continued Wiesemann, “the consulting they provided with regard to 4.10 metrics was invaluable in cementing current processes and tools. The comments and insights resulting from these efforts were outstanding and are already being used to improve NAVAIR capabilities and service.”

According to Weinstein, the NRP is going through a significant transition period as a result of the recent Zero Base Review ordered by Commander, Fleet Forces Command on behalf of the Chief of Naval Operations. “Our unit structure and customers will be changing,” he said, “and our total numbers and units are shrinking.” Though their resources remain unclear at this time, Weinstein hopes the NRP AIRSpeed project will remain intact.

NRP AIRSpeed reservists are required to deliver a minimum of 36 days of duty every year to work on NAVAIR projects. According to Weinstein, there are other ways to fund a reservist, including Active Duty Special Work (ADSW) funding. ADSW is Navy working capital funds that can be applied toward Reserve support.

The members of NAVAIR Reserve Program (NRP) collectively deliver qualified and diverse civilian and military capabilities to the operational support of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) research and development, engineering, program management, logistics, and industrial capability activities. The 600 Naval Reserve officers and enlisted men and women of the NRP train constantly to respond to evolving NAVAIR missions enabling the organization to harvest tangible cost savings for fleet recapitalization. The NRP is currently comprised of 32 commands which are headquartered in 14 states.

For more information about using an NRP AIRSpeed reservist, contact your deployment champion. For more information about NAVAIR AIRSpeed, go to http://www.navair.navy.mil/navairairspeed/.