ESC Focus Area champions take strategic view

  • Published
  • By Chuck Paone
  • ESC Public Affairs
Apr. 5, 2007 --  A select group of Electronic Systems Center senior leaders is working to lay the right foundation for successfully and sustainably implementing a list of key focus areas ESC Commander Lt. Gen. Chuck Johnson put forth earlier this year.

These champions, named by General Johnson, are charged with leading efforts to continually improve ESC's performance in each of the five areas, as well as for integrating them with the overall strategy of the center. Col. Leslie Blackham, commander of the 753rd Electronic Systems Group, is the champion for Warfighter Value; Acquisition Center of Excellence Director Sue Angel is leading the Acquisition Excellence area; Sheila Brennan, director of Personnel, is heading the Workforce competency focus area. Plans and Programs Director Col. Bruce Johnson is leading the One Command effort; and Col. Tom Schluckebier, commander of the 66th Air Base Wing is the Operational Excellence champion.

"We need to continue to include the warfighter as part of our team and ensure that, through constant communication, we achieve mutual success," said Dr. Joe Delaney, deputy director of Plans and Programs, who is working with the champions to help meld their work into the framework of ESC's comprehensive strategy.

The process the champions are engaged in now, Dr. Delaney said, is designed to ensure this continues to happen. This will be their primary focus during an April 16 through 18 offsite session in Southbridge, Mass.

"The offsite will continue to hone and focus the work the champions have been doing," Dr. Delaney said.

The center's strategy map now reflects these five priority areas. In weekly meetings, the champions are sharpening the focus and leveraging existing work from the previous strategy map, according to Dr. Delaney.

"Each one of them realizes the importance of getting this right," he said.

With Warfighter Value, the accepted premise is that customer involvement throughout the process ultimately leads to fielding better capabilities, faster and at a lower cost.

"Warfighter Value centers on providing optimal products and services to our customers," Dr. Delaney said. "The champions are discussing how ESC can improve business practices in a way that continually and routinely increases warfighter value."

Delivering systems and solutions that contribute to, and improve, warfighter capability is at the "very core" of Acquisition Excellence, he said.

"Keeping our programs on time and on cost is how we deliver on our commitment to excellence. From the time a need is identified to the time a solution is delivered, we must focus on meeting or exceeding customer expectations. We do this by knowing our core business processes better than anyone else and using them as efficiently and effectively as possible.

"We must strive for excellence as we develop acquisition strategies, conduct source selections, monitor contract performance and deliver capability, while always looking for ways to improve and standardize our processes. In turn, by improving our ability to provide the right solutions at the right time and price, we increase our value to the warfighter."

To do this, ESC must have the right foundation in place, and the workforce is that foundation, Dr. Delaney said.

"The most important asset we have is our workforce," he said. "A highly trained, highly skilled workforce is essential to our success."

The center is now focusing on leadership practices, employee engagement, knowledge accessibility, workforce optimization and organizational learning capacity.

"We are moving our workforce to become competency-based," he said. "We're working to ensure we have the correct competencies-based skill set required to provide state-of-the-art services to the warfighter."

Through the One Command initiative, which Gen. Bruce Carlson, the commander of Air Force Materiel Command has implemented for AFMC, the center is looking to standardize core business processes and tools.

Noted process improvement specialist Dr. Michael Hammer, who supports General Carlson, is noted for saying, "You can end heroics as a strategy when you have predictable and repeatable processes." Ultimately, that is what ESC is striving to accomplish, Dr. Delaney said.

"We want to develop processes that are designed and managed to ensure responsiveness to warfighter needs and provide maximum efficiency in our delivery of products and services."

This applies equally to Operational Excellence, organizing, training and equipping personnel to increase combat capabilities. This area covers a wide range of activities from the Operational Readiness Inspection and Voluntary Protection Program to military construction projects and the Hanscom Pride Program.

"All of it revolves around making our workforce ready," said Dr. Delaney.

The five focus areas have led to streamlining the center strategy map, he said, including a reduction in the number of measurements used. They have also provided an opportunity for strategically aligning Rapid Improvement Events being conducted throughout the center.

"We currently have over 40 RIEs ongoing," he said. "To focus the RIEs, they are now strategically aligned and grouped under the five focus areas."

At the same time that General Johnson announced the focus areas and named the champions, he said: "All wing, group and squadron commanders and directors, as well as functionals, need to embrace these priorities, and help our workforce understand their role in assisting ESC in achieving these priorities."

Accordingly, the wings have "stepped up," Dr. Delaney said, noting that "this sends a powerful message to the workforce about AFSO21."

In the 554th Electronic Systems Wing, for example, Director Frank Weber has created an AFSO21 Office, which is located at the 754 ELSG and led by Mr. Greg Garcia at Maxwell AFB, Ala. Also, Col. Dartanian Warr, commander of the 551 ELSW, has just requested that 20 of his senior leaders, including his deputy, sign up for green belt training.

The bottom line, Dr. Delaney said, is that the center is striving to "create an environment in which everyone's job is defined by how it helps to create and deliver value to the warfighter."

"The team we have assembled with these focus area champions is up for the challenge," he said. "They're making great strides, but have just scratched the surface and need everyone's support and contribution to succeed."