BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- Members of the 307th Bomb Wing gathered here Monday to solve issues affecting the unit's education and training efforts.
Scott Sowder, 307th Bomb Wing command and compliance officer, said many of the concerns stemmed from the transition from the Air Force's Advanced Distribution and Learning Service to its myLearning platform.
"There was a loss of data continuity when moving from ADLS to these new systems," he said. "That created a host of issues at the local level that needed to be addressed."
Those issues, said Sowder, slowed training for Airmen in the wing. He cited an 1100 percent increase in the time it took Airmen to complete some computer-based training.
To address the issue, Sowder enlisted the help of Cathy Griffin, Lean 6 Sigma program director for Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Griffin specializes in Value Systems Mapping, a systematic process used to determine the root causes of issues and concerns. VSM provides context, so problems are solved more sustainably, eliminating silos and enhancing communication.
"It (VSM) provides a visual representation of everything impacting a situation," she explained. "It helps because people know what their individual job looks like, but they don't know what the collective effort looks like."
The group brainstormed to create the VSM, focusing on areas such as suppliers, inputs, processes, and outputs.
Sowder said the group plans to come back together in May to test potential solutions and ensure they work.
"We'll want to make sure the solutions we generate don't have some unintended consequence and create other problems," he said.
Sowder said he hopes the training and education issues at the local level will be complete by July or August. If so, it will have addressed one of the primary issues facing the units across the Air Force Reserve command.
"We are getting after it," said Sowder. "Our goal is for the 307th Bomb Wing to be the benchmark."