Sortie Production Optimization Team (SPOT)

This study evaluates the operational activities on an Air Force base and how they can be improved through integration of new technologies, organization of infrastructure/installations, and applied process improvement leading to a decrease in operational costs and manpower. This effort, called Sierra Bravo, was tasked to Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) by the United States Air Force, our work has been scoped to evaluating the sortie generation of an Air Mobility Command (AMC) base. Currently the AMC bases are slowly integrating the use of the Air Force Smart Operations for the 21^st Century (AFSO-21) to improve some of their processes and organization of their installations. The study uses the AFSO-21 to evaluate ways of improving current processes, but also includes the use of Value Stream Analysis and Lean Methodology to find processes that are wasteful and develop alternatives for how the Air Force will reduce this waste. This study uses Arena software to model design alternatives and analyze/evaluate their effects on sortie generation processes, which include inspection, maintenance, loading of cargo/passengers, and refueling. The data retrieved from the simulation is then aligned with the design costs to achieve the best alternative.