Applying Paperless Air Force at the Beginning: A Lean Way Ahead to Reduce Waste and Increase Efficiency in the First Step of Officer Accession Through

Air Force staffing is an issue that always seems to surface. Even though the Air Force can meet the congressionally mandated end strength, personnel are not necessarily in the right specialties to meet Air Force objectives. In this regard, senior leadership, from the Secretary of the Air Force on down, has told Airmen to find ways to do things smarter. To help, the Secretary has organized a program called Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century (AFSO21). This program takes into account a variety of cost saving or performance enhancing methodologies, to include Six Sigma, Lean, and Theory of Constraints, and serves to provide the Air Force with ways to relook at the ways they have historically done business. Air Force ROTC, or more specifically the first stage of officer accessions (turning an interested student into a cadet in seat), is ripe for exploration using these methods as a way to reduce waste and improve efficiency. This problem and solution research paper will explore the process, identify some potential areas of waste, and make recommendations that could potentially save over 5,000 work hours over the course of an academic year. The specific areas address are the paperwork process that each new cadet must go through and the benefit of training cadets to augment the detachment recruiting officer in their work.

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