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Clothing issue running faster

  • Published
  • By James Coburn
  • 37th Training Wing Public Affairs Office
Lackland Air Force Base, Texas --  Newly arrived basic military trainees, termed "Rainbows" for their variety of civilian clothes, enter a new world of uniformity over the space of two hours at Bldg. 5725, Initial Clothing Issue.

But changes are occurring in that new world, since trainees now are leaving the building wearing their physical readiness training gear and running shoes instead of battle dress uniforms and boots.

It takes less time to put on PRT gear and sneakers than BDUs and boots, so the change is a simple way to shave a few minutes from issuing clothing so trainees will have more time for later appointments with Finance and Job Classification.

This change and others were made recently as part of Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century (AFSO21), saving 15 to 20 minutes for each pair of flights numbering from 48 to 55 trainees each. AFSO21 facilitators and clothing issue Airmen worked together to improve the process.

"We made a few changes," said Capt. Sam Peters, 737th Training Group executive officer and lead facilitator for the clothing issue AFSO21 Rapid Improvement Event.

"More importantly than that, we taught the folks that are running this process about the AFSO21 principles and how they can make changes that will make the process better for them", Captain Peters said. "So, long after this event is over, they'll have the ability to make a difference."

This Smart Ops move to improve the clothing issue process for trainees and 37th Logistics Readiness Squadron personnel is among a series of AFSO21 projects started recently by the 37th Training Wing with support from Air Education and Training Command. All are designed to make processes run smoother and more efficiently. Some have the potential of saving millions of dollars a year.

"Lackland is doing wonderful things with AFSO21," said Maj. Joye Haun, from AETC's AFSO21 Action Office. Major Haun was overseeing the recent event at clothing issue. "Every minute they can save off the trainees' schedule," she said, gives the military training instructors "more time to spend on training or on their own duties."

Major Haun said other process improvements at Lackland have big money-savings potential, such as discharges for trainees that wash out for one reason or another. "Once the commander makes the decision to discharge them, until the date that they're discharged, every day is costing the Air Force money and not providing any value," she said.

Lt. Col. Tim Newman, deputy commander of the 37th Mission Support Group, is a lead facilitator for the AFSO21 project started in January that is aimed at reducing the time it takes to medically separate trainees.

According to a study for the project, about 2,400 basic military trainees a year are discharged for medical ailments, and each discharge takes an average of 20.75 days from the time the ailment is identified, for a waiting time cost estimated at $11.9 million.

Colonel Newman said it looks like the best potential involves reducing the average wait of seven days for a provider visit at Reid Clinic. But he said the actual savings won't be known until the streamlined process is studied at the end of a year.

He also is facilitator for a related AFSO21 project to reduce the discharge waiting time that averages 7.6 days for trainees being discharged for a behavior disorder.

Another Smart Ops project that began this week is an effort to reduce the outprocessing time for Airmen deploying overseas from Lackland, an aggregation hub for deployments.

Back at Initial Clothing Issue, Captain Peters said it used to take 2 1/2 hours for two flights to be issued their first Air Force clothing in the correct sizes, and after process changes were made during the Rapid Improvement Event, "now on average it's taking two hours and eight minutes, saving about 20 minutes per pair of flights going through here."

Master Sgt. Vernalynne Carter, chief of clothing issue quality assurance for the 37th LRS, said one of the changes involved moving the hats into the room with the PRT gear and fitting them there. Previously, the hats were fitted in an area where trainees were trying on boots and running shoes, creating a bottleneck. "We had trainees standing around waiting to get their hats," she said, while "people were everywhere on the floor trying on shoes and boots."

Captain Peters said saving 10 minutes of waiting time "doesn't sound like much," but multiplied by 14 flights in a week, that's more than two hours. "Multiply that by a year, it's a lot of time savings."

Sergeant Carter said another change has the male flight going through the full-body scanner before the companion female flight. "In the old way, the females were scanned first," she said. "That just left the male flights standing there for roughly 45 minutes, not doing anything. So now, the males are in there getting scanned," she said, while the females are being fitted and issued their clothing.

The females still need to be scanned to know what clothing needs to be reordered and to obtain their correct sizes when their blue uniforms are issued three weeks later. That left the male flight waiting for the female flight for about 15 minutes, Sergeant Carter said, but MTIs now are taking the male flight to their next appointment immediately, to be followed later by the female flight.

Sergeant Carter said the scanner may be moved to the 319th Training Squadron for trainees to be scanned when they arrive Tuesday or Wednesday nights. If that occurs, she said, each pair of flights will be able to go through clothing issue in two hours or less because trainees will already have their size scan sheets.

In six or seven months, she said, the process is expected to be even faster thanks to RFID (radiofrequency identification) technology. LRS personnel will be able to scan an entire duffel bag and know exactly what clothing is inside it from silicon chips on the clothing tags.