News

Base holds high velocity acquisition lean event

  • Published
  • By Jenny Gordon
  • Robins Air Force Base Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  Robins conducted a Center-wide High Velocity Acquisition Lean event Aug. 22 through 26 in Bldg. 301.

The purpose of the event was to identify improvement strategies in sustainment and acquisition processes.

"This is a fresh start, to take a look at what has changed in the process," Steven Zamparelli, Center director of contracting, said during the event's opening. "There are great opportunities for improvement. We want to get our products to the customers as soon as we can get it to them. We want to meet their needs."

With two years of constant changes in contracting and acquisition, Zamparelli added that things are different now. It would be important to examine horizontal ownership of work processes, to address program execution as well as any current frustrations, and to identify gaps in the way Center contracts are awarded. For example, in awarding bridge contracts, the process costs extra time and effort, not always resulting in the customer getting the best deal, he said.

"If you don't spend money in a timely manner or on needed requirements - and you lose it - then you've lost a customer requirement. You've lost something the warfighter has identified they've needed," said Zamparelli.

The lean event was well represented by senior leaders, program managers, contracting officers, and small business and policy representatives from across the Center and guest customers from Air Mobility Command and Air Combat Command.

Maj. Gen. Robert McMahon, Center commander, was a team member during the meetings, which was key in ensuring accountability and ownership in the process, added Zamparelli.

McMahon said he would be committed to those who have invested long hours in their work, and that progress would be made. He also challenged everyone to rethink how things have been done in the past, and to get to know the customer on the other end of each contract award.

"I walk away with three overriding perspectives. The first is that we are blessed to have the acquisition professionals we have," said McMahon. "The second thing I have found is that we use the argument of being thorough to justify being inefficient. I believe collectively we need to think differently about that. The third is that those who add value to the product don't have a lot of confidence in those of us whose job it is to remove impediments."

Although acquisition meetings are held on a continual basis throughout the Center, each outcome is an opportunity to baseline everyone's understanding of what it takes to get the job done and come together to a common point of reference. There are various aspects of contract awarding that can be outside of one's control, said Zamparelli, but what can be changed are the way certain steps are implemented internally.

In identifying a potential area of improvement, perhaps the biggest gap was not getting as much as possible well-defined as early in the process, noted Zamparelli, a contracting veteran of 35 years. This, for example, includes understanding the market research more on the front-end, and understanding the customer and industry base.

"The better you do it early, the more prepared you are with all the documentation, with all the requirement knowledge, and the better it will flow, and the better product we'll get at the end," he said. "My awakening here was that if all the players are working toward the same objectives, then we can simplify a lot of the things we do."