AFMC Command News

Hill reaps savings from decision to eliminate decals

  • Published
  • By Beth Young
  • 75th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  A decision made by Hill officials eight months ago has led to savings of nearly $1 million and precedes the February Air Force announcement that the Air Force will stop requiring bases to issue decals effective March 15.

Hill was the first of two Air Force bases that already has stopped issuing window identification decals. The decision is tied to Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century, or AFSO21. This initiative fosters a new way of thinking about the Air Force, focusing on continuous improvement and the elimination of non-value added work. Fellow Air Force Materiel Command installation Robins AFB, Ga., stopped issuing decals as of Feb. 5.

According to Dr. Chalon Keller, chief of transformation at Hill, material costs alone totaled $37,000 a year.

"It was actually alarming how much the Air Force was spending for that simple decal that wouldn't get you onto a base," said Dr. Keller. "Not only were you wasting the 75th (ABW) employee's time to issue it, dozens of people a day were losing at least two hours of production time."

In addition to the material costs and employee time, which equaled $115,000 in direct savings to the wing, there was an indirect savings of $824,000 due to lost productivity.

Although the vehicle decal has long been a staple of Department of Defense installations, a requirement to show proper identification to get onto Air Force bases has existed since Sept. 11, 2001.

"These decals were meant to keep the wrong people off base," Dr. Keller said. "However, you still have to show identification, so it's a repetitive process,"

The fact that decals no longer are needed for their intended purposes is what prompted Col. Scott Chambers, 75th Air Base Wing commander, to get rid of them.

"Other than, 'that's they way we've always done it', we could find no additional security this process provided," the colonel said. "We took the step to eliminate the process entirely in our drive to reduce workload."

The resources once used to issue decals can know be focused on more mission essential tasks.

"This actually increases our force protection because we have more time to dedicate to making sure the people who are coming on the base should be here," said Col. Michael Trapp, 75th Mission Support Group commander.

At one time, cars needed to be registered on base and have decals to identify owners. Today, technological advances help security forces use license plates to find owners almost instantaneously, Colonel Trapp said. This mirrors the process used by local police.

Eliminating decals also have some intangible security benefits. First, DOD decals on cars easily identify government workers to anyone who would like to make government workers a target.

"So, the safety of our airmen and civilian employees as they left the base was also a concern," Dr. Keller said.

"As a security forces commander, whenever we would have an antiterrorism survey or evaluation, our greatest vulnerability was access to those decals from used car lots counterfeiting," Colonel Trapp said.

The Air Force elimination of decals does not affect other services' bases. Thus, people who travel to other military bases likely will have to get temporary permits and motorcycle riders will have to prove they have taken the motorcycle safety course by showing their training certificate card.

"Those two things have been the only drawbacks and complaints that we have found so far," Colonel Trapp said.