AFIA looks toward the future Published Oct. 21, 2011 By Stefan Bocchino 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs Kirtland Air Force Base -- Col. Paul W. Tibbets IV, who took command of the Air Force Inspection Agency in July, spoke about AFIA's mission. "AFIA is a diverse team of subject matter experts providing independent inspection, evaluation and analysis to advance continuous improvement of compliance, standardization and mission effectiveness at all Air Force levels," said Tibbets. "We are the primary action arm of the Secretary of the Air Force. AFIA is at the tip of the spear in helping improve the Air Force." AFIA has about 130 people, mostly field grade officers, civilians and senior NCOs, who travel extensively. He said they are valued for their experience and expertise. "As we continue to transform the nuclear enterprise, one of our key mission sets is standardization of Nuclear Surety Inspections," said Tibbets. "The major commands have the bulk of the inspectors, but we provide a core team for every NSI. What this provides is a team of experts who conduct inspections with major commands across the Air Force, ensuring continuity across the system and the ability to share lessons learned." Other directorates within AFIA go on inspections as well. "We also have an oversight team on each NSI," said Col. Steve Matson, AFIA Oversight and Evaluations director. "On behalf of the Secretary of the Air Force, we ensure the major commands are performing in accordance with the governing directives. Additionally, through this team, we provide an independent assessment on the major commands' inspections. We're not inspecting the units, per se -- we're evaluating the inspectors and their processes." AFIA has another department that conducts focused inspections. "Another key member of the agency is the Compliance Inspection team, part of the Training and Inspections Directorate," said Col. Sandy Gregory, TI director. "It conducts inspections on the Air Force's 30 field operating agencies and three direct reporting units. In June, during the Air Force District of Washington inspection, the team set a new record by conducting the largest inspection in AFIA's history." As important as inspections are, they are not an end, but a means to an end. "We only exist to help make people better," said Tibbets. "We're here to help improve performance and make commanders more effective and efficient." AFIA is looking to the future with changes to inspections and how to help improve the entire system, he said. "One of the new missions of AFIA is a focus on management excellence," said Col. Scott Graham, Process Improvement and Integration director. "Called the 'Management Inspection Program,' we will look at the major command level and above to see if we are managing properly. This inspection will assess our processes to see if they really make sense, both up and down the chain of command and also horizontally." The Secretary of the Air Force has asked the Inspector General to attempt to realign its processes to get all major inspections back under the IG umbrella, Tibbets said. "The realignment is in progress, and will be called a Consolidated Unit Inspection," said Tibbets. "It takes compliance, functional and operational inspections and puts them under the umbrella of a CUI that comes out to the unit at the same time. Instead of multiple smaller inspections throughout the year, there will only be one inspection each year." An example of AFIA becoming more efficient is the Health Services Inspection area. AFIA's Medical Operations directorate, which conducts all HSIs for the Air Force, has just completed an extensive re-write of its inspection criteria. The inspections will be put into bins so they are very predictable, said Tibbets. Units can then take better advantage of the available space on the calendar to focus on making themselves better. The Air Force is training all the time, but it gets mixed up in the constant inspection culture of the Air Force. "I am so very proud of our team here at AFIA," said Tibbets. "They understand the importance of their mission, represent the best of our Air Force in all that they do, and are truly making a positive difference every day."