Reinventing the Wheel

<p>Today's Air Force faces personnel cuts increasing fiscal pressures and the strain of supporting GWOT. These forces combine to make a renewed focus on continuous process improvement (CPI) and achieving maximum efficiency essential for the Air Force to sustain its demanding operations tempo with fewer resources. This renewed focus is currently applied through the Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century program (AFSO 21) which is often compared to the Quality Air Force initiative of the 1990s. Could this cyclical quest for institutionalized CPI suggest a history and culture of process improvement that goes beyond AFSO 21 and QAF? This project examined CPI concepts through the lens of a broader historical perspective and found the Air Force has a rich heritage of process improvement dating back beyond its origin to the earliest days of airpower as an instrument of war. Further Airmen have shown themselves to be innovative by nature with or without institutionalized process improvement programs suggesting this characteristic is somehow part of an Airman's psyche essence or DNA. Drawing from lessons learned and observations made during this rich history the paper concludes with a few recommendations for ensuring the success of AFSO 21.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>