Supporting Airmen and families top priority for 4th FW

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Shane Dunaway
  • 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  Senior leaders and Airmen from various 4th Fighter Wing organizations participated in an Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century Value Stream Analysis April 8-11 in the community center.

The event was born from an AFSO 21 event held in February where group-level senior leaders ranked supporting Airmen and families as the top priority of the wing above all other value streams, although some were ranked higher.

If you look numerically, our highest ranking value stream was equipping Airmen, said Maj. Chris Melcher, chief of 4th FW AFSO 21. After subjectively looking at the value streams from more than just a quantitative standpoint, we decided to move supporting Airmen and families up to our number one because there were so many intangibles to consider, wing leadership decided it had to be the top priority.

The value stream analysis team spent four days identifying key processes which directly contribute to supporting Airmen and families to see where improvements could be made.

"This is where the rubber meets the road," said Chief Master Sgt. Mark Hammond, 4th Mission Support Group chief. "Our goal is to ensure Airmen, families, spouses and everyone involved is fully aware and knowledgeable of all the resources available to them."

Improvement ideas were categorized into three separate groups depending on the difficulty level and coordination required to make it happen: Rapid improvement events, projects and "Just Do Its."

Some items of interest brought to the forefront during the value stream analysis included setting up Gmail accounts for deploying Airmen, allowing remote spouses opportunities to become involved in the key spouses program and improving the sponsor program.

"The success we gain at reaching the family and the spouse is critically linked to the human element of friendship and relationship that are built," said Col. Steve Kwast, 4th Fighter Wing commander during the close of the value stream analysis event. "You can only do that effectively when it is organic from the organization in which they work."