Photo By Diana Nesukh | Seeing an opportunity to improve the warehouse inventory system at Aviano Air Base,...... read more read more
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Civil engineers are hard-wired to rise to any challenge and look for opportunities to innovate at every level. For Staff Sgt. Isaac Quella, 31st Civil Engineer Squadron Operations Manager, inspiration struck in the materials warehouse at Aviano Air Base, Italy.
After taking a closer look at the inventory management system at Aviano, Quella had an idea to improve its production. After many iterations, Quella developed a new inventory management system called Craft-Scan-Go. The smartphone application provides real-time tracking while decreasing man hours. Before Quella’s new approach, the squadron relied on pen and paper tracking to manage their warehouse inventory. The process took numerous hours, and inconsistent penmanship often left too much up for interpretation.
Today, craftsmen enter the warehouse, check out a smart phone, and get to work. As they move through the warehouse to pick up materials, they use the Craft-Scan-Go app to scan those materials’ corresponding QR codes. Once they are done gathering everything they need, craftsmen complete their transaction, and the data is sent to a sustainment management system where it is then loaded into TRIRIGA, a work management system. Implementing this system has already shown promising monetary results and is improving the work lives of those in the warehouse.
“[Craft-Scan-Go] allows us to focus on other things. Inputting and issuing data takes up valuable time that can be used to focus on other ideas that we might have for the squadron and our shop,” Senior Airman Randi Hopkins, Inventory Technician, said. “With such a large warehouse, it can take over a month to do inventory on paper. With this app, it can take one to two weeks.”
In June 2022, the pen and paper processes at Aviano's CE warehouses were replaced with the Craft-Scan-Go model, which showed significant improvement in efficiency since its implementation.
The outcome would not have been possible without Aviano's CE leadership empowering Airmen to question the status quo, and put their ideas to the test. Quella’s frontline supervisor, Master Sgt. Robert Thorton, not only backed Quella’s idea to challenge the squadron’s processes, but championed it. “He advocated for me and my vision for changing how we operate in our squadron for the better,” said Quella. The advocacy was ultimately taken to their CE Superintendent and CE Commander.
Quella said that his leaders “not only supported me, but helped me with every step along the way, whether it was working alongside organizations or approving funding.”
The Craft-Scan-Go model has elevated Aviano's warehouses and is a testament to the importance of innovation at every level of the CE enterprise. Although Craft-Scan-Go is an initiative meant to solve problems being faced at Aviano, Quella is not letting that limit the future of the model.
Quella hopes to eventually integrate the system with a program of record. Sharing the wealth of saving hours, the team looks forward to eventually fully automating the process and getting rid of double documenting. Quella and his team have made significant progress and hope that once implemented, the solution will allow for instantaneous data entry and transfer to TRIRIGA. Quella hopes to learn from the product’s implementation within other squadrons and adapt it to work on an enterprise-wide level. “If we could have other installations pilot this program, it could help to prove the program can work outside of Aviano,” said Quella.
In February, members of Yokota Air Base, Japan, visited the 31st Civil Engineering Squadron to see Craft-Scan-Go in action and learn how to implement it in their squadron.
As Craft-Scan-Go continues to grow, so will the resolute Airmen behind it. Quella, and civil engineers like him, will continue to challenge the status quo, pushing the enterprise into the next generation with innovation and ingenuity.
| Date Taken: | 10.22.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.22.2024 16:05 |
| Story ID: | 483690 |
| Location: | AVIANO AIR BASE, IT |
| Web Views: | 53 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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