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AFSC’s Office of the Future Progress on Track

  • Published
  • By Angela Startz
  • Air Force Sustainment Center

The continued efforts by the Air Force Sustainment Center in modernizing work spaces are showing signs of success.

In April, the team at AFSC Safety, led by Ryan Smith, became the first office to take advantage of the AFSC Office of the Future initiative by transitioning their team to 80 percent telework.  They also successfully coordinated space-sharing with the 72nd Air Base Wing Safety Office, enabling them to turn in 100 percent of their administrative space.

“Moving to a full-time telework office has been a definite culture change,” said Smith. “We went from seeing everyone, every day, in person, to bi-weekly Teams meetings, steady texting and constant phone conversations. As a Center staff office, this was typical operations with all of our other offices outside Tinker, so to a degree we were already prepared to work virtually.”

Smith believes the transition has enhanced collaboration in the virtual environment, which may translate to a more effective support environment between AFSC and its customers.   

“As we become more proficient in using the virtual tools available, and as technology continues to advance, the mission will be greatly enhanced. We still meet in person as needed to ensure we continue our wingman concepts through personal interactions, all while taking advantage of our new Office of the Future facilities.”

As every office in AFSC continues to develop their Office of the Future plan, the 448th Supply Chain Management Wing turned in their plan to become the second office to do so. They reduced their footprint by nearly 120,000 square feet across Hill, Robins and Tinker Air Force Bases, which equates to about 45 percent of their total space.

“The installation commanders and Civil Engineering directors welcome these space reductions,” said Ryan Perry, AFSC’s Office of the Future lead. “This will enable the installations to re-allocate space to meet current shortages or new workload, and meet the Air Force objective of demolishing older, more costly facilities. This will help meet our goal of reducing our facility footprint by five percent.”

Created during the increase of teleworking in 2020, the AFSC Office of the Future initiative looks at ways to modernize working spaces for today’s mobile workforce, taking full advantage of advancements in information technology and helping reduce risk of the COVID-19 virus. In October 2021, the initiative expanded to normalize long-term telework schedules and develop space reduction plans, depending on the missions of the many offices at AFSC.

In June of 2021, Lt. Gen. Carl Schaefer, vice commander of Air Force Materiel Command, challenged all AFMC organizations to meet a 50 percent telework rate for those personnel that are eligible. In October 2021, a follow-up challenge established a goal to reduce the administrative footprint by 40 percent across AFMC.

“The AFSC continues to shift its approach to providing world-class sustainment to the greatest air power that has ever existed,” said Perry. “We entered the largest Continuity of Operations the world has ever seen in March 2020, and we continue to successfully execute our mission of providing sustainment and logistics readiness to deliver combat power for the United States.”