OO-ALC is located at Hill AFB, Utah. Col MAQ Maquet was assigned to Hill AFB from Jun 1988 to Oct 2005 when he retired after 35 years in the USAF.  Of the 18 years at Hill, he spent 10 years flying F-16s with the 419 FW (Reserves), then worked as an IMA in the YP Directorate(the F-16 Support Program Office) managing all F-16s world-wide.  After 911, MAQ was brought back on Active Duty as the Assistant Director of YP until 2002 when he was asked by the Center Commander to Open the first AFMC Transformation Office at Hill AFB.  MAQ worked Transformation with the Center until 2005, training Active and Civilian personnel in Lean and CPI. In 2005, MAQ was loaned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense to initiate the CPI effort at the Department of Defense.  He also helped draft the USAF Lean and AFSO 21 Efforts.

     During his work as the Transformation chief, MAQ assisted the Center in hosting two Shingo Prize Conferences, and taught over 1200 personnel on Lean Principles.  He also certified over 50 Level 1 Facilitators and 5 Level 2 Facilitators.

    Today, he continues to teach CPI classes for Hill and Weber State University in the Ogden Utah area.

     In 2005, Col MAQ Maquet was the only Active Duty Air Force Officer on a select team of Process Improvement experts tasked to study what all the Military Services were doing in Process Improvement and generate a new DoD CPI Guide. The team of Consultants from all different Methodologies ie. Lean, Six Sigma, TOC, Process Reengineering, and Sytems Engineering, worked together for a full year.  We visited several Military instalations across the US and studied what they knew about Process Improvement and what they were presently doing. We also received great inputs on what the organizations and Change Managers needed to help them be successful. In Nov 2005, the team brought back all we had learned and generated a DoD CPI guide. This guide was unique becasue it was meant to be used by ALL the Services, but also it was generated from a group of PI experts used to focusing on just one methodology. It was the first and only time I have seen Consultants teaching different methodologies come together and write a Guide that uses all the methodologies taking the best of each to improve any process.  This is the heart and soul of CPI.

     The guide was published in Feb 2006. Unfortunately, the Service 3-stars who represented their organizations convince DoD that the document should not be Mandatory as originally planned. The original purpose of the guide was to standardize CPI across all the services so they could communicate better and share resources. Since the Guide was not mandatory, each of the Military services focused on a different Methodology. The USAF uses primaryily LEAN. The Army Uses Primaryily SIx Sigma but has recently started using a Lean Six Sigma methodology (LSS).  The Navy and USMC focus on TOC but now include some Lean.  All the services have recognised the need to use a few of the tools in different methodologies, but they still resist using a Standard CPi Approach.

     The result was that all services made some progress, but none could completely share their knowledge or lessons learned.  M2M hopes that DoD in the future will recognize the benefit of a STANDARD Approach and return to the DoD Guide.  We will see.

     In 2006, MAQ and MIKE spent the entire year at Pope AFB Implementing a CPI Culture across the entire Airlift Wing.  The task was to make Pope Sulf-Sufficient implementing CPI in one year.  Although this is twice as fast as most organizations would attempt, it worked because the wing had an excellent Wing Commander in BG Darren MsDew, who drove the change across the wing.  In the 12 months, over 45 events had been performed on processes in all 4 Groups. There had been 67 Level 1, and 8 Level 2 Facilitaors trained.  Estimated savings across the wing was more than $355,000. 

      The strongest part of the AFSO program at PACAF isIn PACAF, is that the Commander of PACAF is General Howie Chandler. Howie was my classmate at USAFA, graduating in the clas of 1974. When AFSO got its start in the USAF, Howie was the Champion for the program, being the A-3 at the Pentagon.  He continues to be a strong supporter of the effort and makes it work in PACAF.

     M2M taught a Level 1 facilitator course at Hickam AFB, HI. We conducted events at Osan AB in South Korea and at Hickam AFB, HI.  PACAF has a very aggressive AFSO 21 office with individuals that I helped train in the AF Level 2 Facilitator Program at the University of Tennessee.  Col Skip Day stood up the AFSO 21 Office there in 2007 but was reassigned to Security Forces for ACC in Langely Virginia in 2008.  Skip was replaced by Col George who is still the Chief of the AFSO Office. Lt Col George Fritts is still working in the office at Hickam and is a great staf officer and Facilitator.  One additional Facilitator, Maj Tom Lane is still working in the office as well, and doing a great job.  The entire office is strong and GET IT!  They will help PACAF be succesful across the Pacific. 

    In Osan AB, ROK, the AFSO office has a 1 Lt Jaimie Kelly who was trained by M2M at Pope AFB. She is a talented facilitator and is supported by several other Facilitator graduates of Pope AFB now in Osan.  The fact that these trained facilitators from Pope AFB are still trying to be active, is proof that the AF CPI Culture is working and spreading across the AF at all locations.

     Hexcel is a company that permeats material like Fiber Glass and Composite Fiber with resin for use in making light weight, but very strong Material for aircraft ond other industries., The Composit material is used by Lockhead Martin, Boeing, Northrup Grumman and other aviation companies world-wide.

     M2M has conducted two events on their pre-preg towers to improve their transition time between batches and different materials. We conducted these events through a Continuing Education program from Weber State University.  Both events were very successful in reducing time required to transfer from one material to another. One achieved an 80% reduction, and the second a 60% reduction in Transition time.  Both towers are performing better than the management thought they could and putting out record amounts of material.

    Success at Hexcell was entirely due to the vision of the new Plant Manager in 2008 who had past experience with Lean and knew it was something he wanted to pursue considering they were over 6 months behind in required production when we started working with them. Their CPI culture journey continues. 

     M2M teaches a variety of Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) Courses for WSU.  The latest was a CPI Practicioner Course for 26 members of the AFSO 21 Office and other organizations on Hill AFB.  The course talked to the differences in Process Improvement Techniques such as Lean, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints and how CPI is a better methodology because it combines all the best parts of the other techniques.

     M2M is also working with Weber State to generate on-line courses for the Department of Welfare through a proposed grant. The courses ar eaimed at basic employees US-Wide to teach them about th ebenefits of CPi and how they can improve processes in every industry and make US companies more competitive with companies like Toyota.

    M2M is presently working with the Continuing Education program at WSU, but we look forward to the day when CPI will be a main part of every Business and MBA program. Many US companies are realizing there is benefit to using CPi tools to increase their proffits and reduce costs.

     M2M has worked events at OSAN AB in the Republic of Korea for the AFSO 21 Office there.  The Facilitator we worked with was 1 LT Jaimie Kelly.  She was a Level 1 and 2 facilitator Trainee with the 43AW in Pope AFB, NC in 2006. She came out of Personnel to work in the Pope AFSO 21 Office and was a great aset to Pope and is now an AFSO 21 Facilitator/Trainer at Osan.  The two events we conducted at Osan were training events for new Facilitators from Kunsan AB, ROK and Yakoda AB in Japan.  The events centered around reducing the delivery time for munitions during wartime and exercise operations on Osan.  We were able to help the Munitions Squadron identify several ways to speed up delivery of munitions and therefore reduce their reaction time as well as increase the number of correct munitions arriving and being loaded on Combat F-16 aircraft.   

     The AFSO 21 Office at Osan also recognized that there were at least 4 more people on Osan who had been trained as Facilitators at Pope AFB in 2006 that could be used to their benefit.  This movement of Facilitators shows that training at one base will ultimately help build the CPI Culture at other USAF and Joint Bases since those trained Facilitators will move around the AF during their careers. This is a very positive result of movement of AF Personnel and should encourage Senior Leaders to continue training Facilitators at their own bases even when they are only there for a short time. The result will be the "BEST Situation" for the USAF and the continuing of the CPI Culture AF Wide.

    In 2007, MAQ Facilitated an event held at the Spacecom HQ at Colorado Springs, CO. The event was the initial TOP Process Analysis for "OPERATIONS Process Owners across the AF.  The event helped the Spacecom Commander and his team identify the processes they owned and decide how to best improve them across the AF. The team had several General Officers and Colonels in attendance and it was a spirited discussion of Operations, the change to a New CPI Culture and the areas they shold focus on in the future.

Date: 04-08-2009

Full Name: David Beise

Organization: 572nd AMXS/C-130

Comments:

Maq,

I took the course you offered at WSU for CPI last fall with XPT. I have moved on to work with the C-130s, and I was asked to facilitate a kaizen event. There were not many events for me to do in XPT, so I was a little nervous. This was really my first event without any help. I quickly got your book out, "Implementing a CPI Culture" and read through it. I was able to follow the steps in your book, and they were very helpful. The event concluded last week, and it was a huge success.

Thank you!

David Beise

I started working with the USAF in 2002 when I was the First Transformation Director for Hill AFB, Utah.  I met then Col Paul Dunbar at a conference I attended at Air Force Maeriel Command and we became co-authors of the Guide to start Implementing Lean in the USAF in 2004.  I worked with his office through 2004 until the AF stood up the Air Force Smart Ops for the 21st Century Office (AFSO21) that year.  I build and taught the first week long Facilitator Course using a Facilitator Guide and a standard checklist approach to conducting a Lean event in 2005.  I taught this course to Col Dunbar and several other members of the AFSO21 Office including Col Mike Smith.  After Col Dunbar retired in 2006, he returned to the AFSO-21 Office  as a GS-15 and continued his fine work on Implementing Lean and CPI in the USAF.  I worked several other events with AF organizations world-wide and was a Mentor for the USAF Level 2 Facilitator Course taught by Univ. of Tenn. in 2006.                                         The following wording is from a letter of recomendation from Col Smith as to how the USAF was using me and what they think I am qualified to do.

FROM: Colonel Michael S. Smith Sr., USAF

SUBJECT: Letter of Recomendation (Mike Maquet)                                                            21 Jan 2010

It is my distinct honor to recommend Mike "Maq" Maquet for Master Black Belt (MBB) level Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) work for your organization.  Maq was my instructor and Mentor during my Green Belt training in 2006.  I've continued to work with Maq on projects since then and have always found his talent and enthusiasm an invaluable asset.  He has a long history of success in leading CPI in the Department of Defense and in the United States Air Force.

Maq helped the Department of Defense develop the initial standards and guidlines that we used to start the Air Force CPI program called AIr Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century or AFSO21.  He shared his expertise and experience in an enduring way by helping author the DoD CPI Guidebook which is still used today as a foundational guide to the Department's CPI work.  I first worked with Maq when he was serving as the MBB at Pope AFB, NC.  Maq's work at Pope set the standard for what we hoped to achieve at bases across the globe.  I was so impressed with Maq's work that I brought multiple General Officers to Pope AFB to show them what a well-run CPI program looks like.  Maq's work at Pope AFB inspired senior AF leadership to move forward on a more aggressive path to implementing AFSO21 across the Air Force.

Based on Maq's great success at Pope AFB, I hired him to serve in a MBB role as an instructor in the Air Force CPI School in coordination with the University of Tennessee.  In that capacity Maq trained and mentored several classes of Air Force Black Belt students.  His students have continued to grow the CPI abilities that Maq initiated and are driving results in the Air Force today.

Maq's ability to successfully design and drive CPI initiatives is rare and unique.  I whole heartedly endorse his work!  Please contact me if you have any questions or need more info. 

SIGNED

MICHAEL S. SMITH, COL USAF

Director Air Force Smart Operations