375th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron takes lead in scheduling process
The scheduling process used to take 14,976 feet of walking. It now takes only 1,622 feet. More importantly, what once took 33.5 work-hours now takes only 25.5 work-hours. The schedule was previously created by tediously cutting and pasting in Microsoft Word to create a shell and, then, finished manually.
"Nothing was computerized," Capt. Miquelle Miller, the 375th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron's element chief for aircrew scheduling, said. "So, it involved a lot of walking.
"We knew we needed a change in the scheduling process," she said.
The office undertook a wing quality action workout in conjunction with the manpower office to evaluate the process and improve it. All of the office's tasks were timed and examined during the workout.
The results of the exercise were more than Miller could have hoped for.
She explained, "Taking advantage of Microsoft Excel, we trimmed it to about a two-hour process. We've also decentralized the schedule. For the first four days, the schedule is unprotected, which allows medical readiness to schedule training requirements and gives the other areas more flexibility to schedule their mission requirements."
While these changes have cut the original time it took to make the schedule in half, Miller still sees room for improvement. Plans are under way to incorporate the capabilities of Access software into the scheduling process to design an overall better product.
"We hope it will be a benchmark for other aerovac missions," Miller said. "Places like Ramstein and Yokota still have really archaic processes." (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).
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