Program rewards innovation, benefits Air Force

The Airman Mentoring Program, the brainchild of A1C Lane Rabern, AFPC separations technician, is on the Air Force Portal, incorporated into the Air Force’s MyVector mentoring program. It matches Airmen with mentors who will help facilitate their personal and professional growth and assist them in meeting their short- and long-term goals.

The AMP is an example of what happens when an active-duty member or civilian employee comes up with an idea that can positively impact the Air Force and submits it through Airmen Powered by Innovation, a program that targets resource savings and improved mission performance.

API, which is also accessible through the portal, replaced three Air Force “good idea” programs: "Innovative Development through Employee Awareness," "Productivity Enhancing Capital

Investment" and "Best Practices."

“The best aspects of those three programs are captured in API,” said Roger Flynt, Air Force Manpower Analysis Agency API Operations Branch chief. “The goal was to establish one good program.”

Every idea that is submitted through API on the Air Force Portal comes to the API Idea Cell at JBSA-Randolph, where Flynt oversees six technicians.

“The cell analyzes the submission and, if it’s ready for evaluation, we send it to the appropriate OLDM, or organization-level decision maker,” he said.

The OLDM has the authority to approve the idea and direct its implementation, according to Air Force Instruction 38-402. An OLDM may be a major command’s commander or vice commander, a staff-level executive director or director, or a Headquarters Air Force official at the two-digit level.

The OLDM assigns a subject-matter expert to evaluate the idea and provide a recommendation to approve or disapprove the idea. After approving an idea, the OLDM assigns it to an implementation lead to make it happen and to replicate it across the Air Force, if practical. The manpower office may be included in the process.

Since API’s inception in April 2014, more than 4,000 ideas have been submitted, Flynt said. OLDMs have approved 134 ideas for implementation out of 848 that have risen to the evaluation phase. Projected cost savings through December 2015 were an estimated $117 million.

“At this time, 365 submissions are being evaluated throughout the Air Force, including 13 at Air Education and Training Command,” he said. “The 12-month average is about 250 submissions.”

Flynt said it’s important for anyone who has an idea to search the online API database on the portal to see if that idea has already been submitted. The idea cell will close submissions that already exist.

“We’ll look at the idea and bounce it against the database,” he said. “We’ll close it if the Air Force is already aware of it.”

Flynt said the program rejects common ideas that have already been submitted by other Airmen – such as converting to light-emitting diode light sources or using solar panels.

“You really need to be specific,” he said. “Describe what you want done and how it will benefit the Air Force.”

Flynt said an idea may have local or Air Force-wide impact.

Anyone who has an idea is encouraged to seek help from a local Continuous Process Improvement expert in building an idea proposal, Flynt said. The local manpower offices are the focal point for CPI efforts.

After an Airman submits an idea, the API idea cell will determine if the idea is “evaluatable.” If it is not evaluatable, the cell will ask the submitter to improve the proposal or recommend that the submitter work with a CPI expert.

Submitters can input their idea by going to the Air Force Portal and clicking on “Airmen Powered by Innovation” under “Building Resilient Airmen” or “Air Force Information.” When the API page appears, the submitter clicks on “Submit Your Idea.” Submitting an idea is a three-step process: creating a profile, providing idea information and uploading supporting documentation, if any.

Rabern said he did not initially submit his idea for the Airman Mentoring Program through API.

“I didn’t see the tangible savings I thought the API would want to see,” he said.

But his mentor, Bob Tullgren, AFPC Military Service Records policy, procedures and corrections chief, told him the AMP, if implemented, would save the Air Force money in the development of mentoring programs.

“It was submitted, the program fused with the Air Force MyVector mentoring platform and I was rewarded for the submission,” Rabern said. “It has already made a big splash and is located on the Air Force Portal. This provides a helpful avenue for airmen and supervisors alike by tracking career paths and mentoring capabilities.”

Other JBSA team members have also submitted ideas that have reached the implementation stage, Flynt said. Some of those ideas are not requiring advanced academic degrees for officers during line of the Air Force promotion boards and removing unnecessary steps in desalination wash procedures for aircraft.

Rewards for eligible idea submitters – active-duty members, civilian employees and Air Force Reserve Command members in Title 10 status – range from $100 to $10,000.

“That depends on confirmed dollars saved,” Flynt said. “It may take a while to confirm the Air Force saved money.”

Flynt said API is an ever-improving work in progress.

“We’re continually improving our processes,” he said. “OLDMs are getting better all the time. It’s a healthy sign that Airmen are submitting their ideas. API is there, on the portal, available to you, to share your good, actionable improvement ideas.”