JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas -- Staff Sgt. Ryan Jette, a Unit Training Manager with the 343rd Training Squadron, created an automation for training records that saved 79 man hours in the 37th Training Group alone before launching throughout his career field, and he has some innovating automation tips for you.
“We do so many tedious, repetitive tasks that we shouldn’t have to spend time on,” Jette said. “That’s where automation comes in.” He said the best candidates for automation are time-consuming tasks you do on a daily or weekly basis. Once the automation is up and running, you merely press a button, and the computer does all of the work.
The Air Force has access to a full-feature automation program called UiPath that allows Airmen (including civilians) to use automations that developers like Jette have created. CAC holders interested in using already-created automations can request a license here.
If you receive a license, you’ll be able to run automations from UiPath, including those that correlate with your career field. For example, unit training managers across the Air Force have already started using Jette’s automation to pull more than 3,000 training records from the soon-to-retire TBA database and categorize them into designated folders. All those hours of tedious work have happened with the click of a button — the computer does all of the heavy lifting.
Jette says that if you’re looking for ways to innovate your workspace, and an automation doesn’t currently exist, you can learn how to streamline processes on your own by contacting the Wing Process Improvement Manager for available classes, or you can reach out to members of your career field who may have already be solve the problems you face. The unit training manager career field has a designated council of major command representatives that meets twice a month to discuss ideas from the field and solve problems presented by colleagues. Jette acts as the Air Education and Training Command representative in the council, nicknamed the Iron Benders. Specifically, Jette serves on the automation team within the Iron Benders, strategizing and creating automation tools to improve efficiency and solve problems across the board.
“I want things to work, and I want processes to improve,” said Jette. He encourages Air Force personnel to not only take advantage of automations, but to also continuously look for ways to improve your workflow.
“Find projects within your office that you can run, and then make them as efficient as possible,” Jette advised.
Jette’s work feeds into the 37th Training Wing’s mentality of innovation, modernizing the workspace by leveraging technology. As the largest training wing in the Air Force, the 37th TRW relies on innovative Airmen like Jette and his colleagues to aggressively and cost effectively transform the ways we learn. Jette’s squadron, the 343rd TRS, trains and graduates over 5,000 Security Forces Airmen every year, a feat that requires consistent refinement of the systems in place. Jette’s automation to pull training records is just one example of that refinement.