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JBSA Airmen save AF $2.5M, earn AETC Productivity Excellence Award

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jerilyn Quintanilla
  • 59th Medical Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  Four Airmen from the 359th Aerospace Medicine Squadron were recently awarded the Air Education and Training Command Productivity Excellence Award for initiatives which saved the Air Force $2.5 million.

According to program guidelines, the award recognizes individual Airmen and small groups who have made substantial improvements in productivity that resulted in a tangible savings of at least $1 million over a consecutive 12-month period.

Working with a problematic system called the Aerospace Physiology Information Management System, First Lieutenant Adam Lohn, Staff Sgt. Rhea Stitham, Senior Airman Mario Mares and SrA Katelynn Freeman, all from the 359 AMDS, worked together to find another program that could more effectively track aircrew training.

"[The] APIMS was launched in 1998," said Lohn. "The database had not been updated and over time, as new operating systems came online we started to have problems. We dealt with random crashes or freezes while entering aircrew training data, lost data and other system delays."

Such issues have resulted in several aircrew members having to re-accomplish training and in some cases members have been put on grounding status meaning they are temporarily unable to fly.

Replacing the system was estimated to cost the Air Force approximately $2.5 million.

"We knew it would take a long time and a lot of money to get the system changed or fixed, so we had to get creative," said Lohn.

After some searching and researching, the team found an existing program within the AF network called the Oracle Training Application which met all the requirements and specifications they needed.

According to Lohn, the OTA not only enables them to track training more efficiently with minimal delays, it's also interfaced with the Air Force's Military Personnel Data System. This gives personnel the ability to view and verify digital training records at any duty location.

The team conducted a 90-day test and evaluation, after which the OTA was implemented at all AF physiology units.

"We're now the subject matter experts for the system," said Stitham. "We created a user manual, held several training sessions with other units via teleconferences and serve as the OTA help desk answering questions about the system from other physiology units."

While the monetary savings was a huge accomplishment, the team also managed to cut down their unit's processing time, recapturing more than one thousand man-hours in the 359 AMDS alone.

The estimated savings in man-hours is 85% across all AF physiology units.

Lohn and Stitham both agree the time savings is perhaps the greatest benefit of the new system.

"Now, with the time we spent recreating paperwork and re-accomplishing tasks we can focus on other aspects of the mission and training," said Stitham. "That's the real accomplishment."