Robins units win Pinnacle awards Published Nov. 7, 2008 By Wayne Crenshaw 78 ABW/PA ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- Two Robins units have reached the pinnacle of achievement when it comes to efficiency and safety. Maj. Gen. Polly Peyer, commander of Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, handed out the quarterly Pinnacle Award Nov. 3 to the 569th Machine Shop Maintenance Team and the 78th Medical Group's Access to Care Team. The Pinnacle Award was created to recognize efforts to promote the tenets of Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century, which is aimed at efficiency improvements, and the Voluntary Protection Program, which encourages better safety and health practices. After presenting the Pinnacle Award and individual awards to members of the machine shop team, General Peyer toured the shop and learned about some of the changes that brought improve ments in productivity and safety. Citing the positive attitude of the team members, the machine shop was chosen just over a year ago as a model for improvement related to VPP and AFSO21. Since then the shop has exceeded production goals, nearly doubled on-time delivery, increased productivity 22 percent and had no safety violations. "It's really a special place around here," said Col. Jeremy Whitley, commander of the 402nd Electronics Maintenance Group. "They've done some tremendous things." After that ceremony, General Peyer traveled to the base clinic where she handed over the Pinnacle Award to Maj. Jason Arnold, family medicine flight commander, along with individual awards for members of the 78th MDG. The group was cited for speeding up the process for patients all the way from making an appointment by phone to getting seen by a doctor. The end result of the myriad improvements was an all-time high customer-satisfaction rate of 99 percent. General Peyer noted that people can relate to customer service improvements by reflecting on their own experiences as a customer when service has fallen short. "We've been that customer as well a provider," she said.