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Show 12 Hilltop Times QUALITY July 28, 1989. IrQOCQiirdl by David Harris Hilltop Times staff writer V Base employees' ideas are being heard. What's more they're being implemented, and the results are hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings and better productivity. In February 1988, Col. Thomas A. Fox, Hill AFB comptroller, created a quality council. The council's assignment was to devise a way to give employees a chance to express their ideas to help the directorate function more efficiently. Eighteen months and almost 150 suggestions later, more than 100 employee ideas have been implemented, including one that has been recommended to be used Air Forcewide. Colonel Fox said the guts of the program is the x7 individual employee. to want to "I get the point that each employee knows his or her ideas will receive a total open hearing," Colonel Fox said. "I believe it has worked." He seems to be right. Of the 148 suggestions made to the AC quality council since May 1988, 101 have been implemented and 19 are under review. Only one in five are rejected, and those are carefully reviewed as well. Total cost avoidance is almost a quarter of a million dollars. In other words, to achieve the same productivity, it would cost the Air Force an additional quarter of a million dollars. The comptroller's communication with his employees is perhaps the keystone of the quality effort. Employees are encouraged to express their concerns on what is commonly called a "dumb sheet. " These forms are given directly to Colonel Fox or deputy comptroller Dan Davis, who reads them and passes ' them on to the quality council. The quality council reviews them and decides their fate. However, suggestions are not filed away and forgotten. A monthly newsletter gives an update of the status of each suggestion currently under review. This keeps employees informed and lets them know their ideas are important. Dwain Fortie, the comptroller's quality monitor, said, "We've cleaned up a lot of things since last year, some sigificant things." A suggestion made last year by an employee in the accounting and finance branch has had repercussions at the Air Force, level, Anna Butler, a four-yea- r veteran of AC, suggested a way to simplify the - mm ill Super suggester ; III A V--1 gestion to simplify travel pay advances. U.S. Air Force Photo way in which travel pay advances are estimated. Those traveling under the Air Force's Foreign Military Sales program are authorized advance travel pay. Under the old system, estimates were made based upon each customer's share of the total cost. This required charging each customer's account for his share of the advance, thus necessitating a separate entry for each charge. This sometimes required 30 separate entries for one advance. Ms. Butler suggested all advances be taken from one accdunt, and that cost breakdowns and account charges be made afterward in the normal accounting process. This made sense because breaking down costs by customer in the estimating stage ed work which needed to be done later anyway. This extra work was the source of errors and increased processing time of advances. Since the suggestion was implemented, Ms. Butler said everything is going smoothly. She says she v- - v y v yv s- - - 1 Open AApn-S- at -- (At the Newgate Mall) ' Fast Competitive, Friendly Service LONDON from.... .........$639 FRANKFURT from. ............ .S679 SEOUL from ... ..... ........... S 879 TOKYO from....... ..........$879 MINNEAPOLIS from ; $159 Round Trip from, Salt Lake City :Taxes not included, some restrictions apply v 4 v TRUCK rrrrr r iir man-hour- IIIillIilI62 oo78iiiiiiii I;j jj s a month in her secsaves more than 40 tion alone. Auditing is easier and there are fewer errors, and more importantly, less time wasted fixing mistakes. The Air Force is picking. up on the plan as well. Although there has been no change in regulations, the Air Force issued a letter suggesting that all bases implement the program where possible. Because of her work, Ms. Butler was the first Hill employee honored with the Quality Award. Gen. Alfred G. Hansen, commander, Air Force Logistics, Command, presented Ms. Butler with the award in March. She also received a cash award for her sug gestion. She declined to say how much, but said it was substantial. This is not the end of the line for Ms. Butler. She said she has a few more suggestions she is working on. She said she hopes they will be able to help as much, as this one. 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