Air Force Materiel Command Public Affairs
12/15/2014 - WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- During the last 16 years and six assignments in Air Force Materiel Command, Vice Commander Lt. Gen. Andrew Busch was challenged to find new methods to operate more efficiently in one of the most complex and diverse commands that employs more than 80,000 people and manages a $60 billion budget. His tenure as vice commander was highlighted by AFMC's restructuring from 12 centers to five followed by laying the foundation for the Air Force's new Installation and Mission Support Center.
The Air Force announced and later confirmed that Busch was nominated for re-assignment as the director of the Defense Logistics Agency at Fort Belvoir, Va. He will be replaced by Maj. Gen. H. Brent Baker, currently director of logistics at Headquarters AFMC. As director of DLA, Busch will be responsible for providing the armed services and other federal agencies a variety of logistics, acquisition and technical services in peace and war.
The DLA director seat has not been occupied by the Air Force since former AFMC Commander Gen. George Babbitt held the position before coming to AFMC in 1997.
In a recent interview, Busch reflected on his time spent in AFMC.
Q: Reflecting on your time in AFMC, can you address any lessons learned?
A: One of the impressive practices in my part of the business while I was in sustainment was lean thinking and continuous process improvement. In one of my early AFMC assignments, we did lean and continuous process improvement down on the shop floor, and I didn't comprehend it all from just reading about it. But when I saw this small work center about the size of my current office organized with lean principles, the light came on and I realized this was amazing. Two AFMC assignments later, I was at Robins AFB, Ga., and applied those principles to how we managed the C-5s. We performed 50,000 labor hours per plane, but the lean principles were driving our flow days from about 400 down to 160. Now you see these practices all over, and all the center commanders are functioning by those processes. The Air Force embraced it a few years later through Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century. That has been really important and I hope we don't forget those lessons looking ahead.
Q: How does AFMC today compare to your first AFMC assignment in 1998 and when you started as vice commander in 2012?
A: It is an interesting contrast but the challenges are still the same. In 1998 when I first came to AFMC as a lieutenant colonel and sustainment officer, our depots were not loaded well; they were inefficient and they needed more workload. Also at that time, we were executing the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure decisions and that task seemed insurmountable. That was driven by national priorities, the size of our military and the needs of the Air Force at that time. Now what we have gone through the last couple of years hasn't been BRAC, but it's been sequestration, furloughs, and travel restrictions. It's also been dealing with uncertainty in customer demands because we don't know what the future holds for the war effort.
Q: What are some of the challenges you've faced during your time here at Headquarters AFMC?
A: When I started as vice commander in July 2012, I sat down with AFMC Commander Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger and she said the centerpiece of our time together would be the implementation of the 5-center construct. I certainly don't want to speak for her but can speak to the things that I have seen and heard her say, mainly that we implemented that exceptionally well. We have single mission areas assigned to single commanders, regardless of location. That was the overarching principle and it was a bold proposal that we needed to take on because of the budget and personnel reductions that we were facing four years ago. So often there is a complaint that all we do is shave things down by a hair every year we have a budget cut -- but that's not what we did. Former AFMC Commander Gen. Donald Hoffman had a bold plan and I was proud of the fact that I worked for a four-star that had a big resourcing issue and a bold plan to respond to it. When Gen. Wolfenbarger was the vice commander, she played a big role in designing it and together we were able to implement. It has been to her credit and to the command's credit that we were able to make this change.
Q: What are your thoughts on your new assignment as the Director of Defense Logistics Agency?
A: There has not been an Airman in the DLA director job since 1997. There have been six Army and Navy senior leaders that have done that job since, and that is important to understand. The reason the Air Force was so interested in returning an Airman to the job was to further enhance our service's reputation that we are joint logistics providers, that we provide joint logistics support just as credibly as other services do and that we have a broader view of the world than perhaps some have given us credit for the last 15 years. I am very pleased that Air Force logistics is being recognized by putting an Airman in that job. My mentors during the last 19 years consciously sent me places and had me do things that prepared me to be that Airman. I am pleased the Air Force is reestablishing itself in a leadership role in this vitally important organization.
Q: What will you miss most about AFMC?
A: The diversity of missions is really remarkable. As a sustainment guy, most of the time -- whether I was at Tinker, Robins, Hill AFB or whether I was at the headquarters last time as the A4 military deputy -- my focus was in a lot of different roles in sustainment, but it was still sustainment. So when you come to this job as the vice, you see a diversity of missions that you don't get anywhere else. I still read monthly activities reports from the program executive officers or the center commanders, and I am amazed by what we are doing and how good we are at doing it. So the diversity of mission is really striking sitting in a job like this.
Q: Is there anything you would like to add?
A: The command has always had challenges. There are old weapons systems that need to be sustained, new weapons systems that need to be developed and delivered to the warfighter quickly, and there are budget issues. There have always been challenges but they are called different names in different times.
The one opportunity that most people in the command may not get to do is occasionally go out and see how Airmen are performing in the field and see what this command produces. We hear about it, we see pictures that we put on walls, but you don't get to really go out and see what they are doing. As a senior leader, I'm fortunate enough to go see these operationally deployed Airmen using our stuff and it is awesome.
It's easy to focus on the fact that we may be a few days late delivering an airplane or software for a weapons system that isn't properly integrated with the data link and focus on the negative. The fact of the matter is that if you go out and see how our warfighting Airmen are doing it's clear there is no other Air Force in the world that does what we do -- none.
It is reassuring to look at the positive things happening in our world and know that many of them are the result of what our Airmen do day in and day out. It is a good and reassuring message that, despite many challenges, our Airmen and this command are doing a great job.
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