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Inefficiencies in the Technical Training Planning Process Stem From:

• Unrealistic expectations associated with changing requirements. Two different perspectives concerning end strength management emerged: one held by those at headquarters and one by those in the field.
• Lack of agility in responding to changing requirements.
• Insufficient visibility into technical training capacity. The inability to view schoolhouse capacity contributes to the lack of flexibility in the technical training pipeline.
• Lack of readily available information to support execution planning.
• Missing participants in the planning process. From requirements planning to execution planning, the absence of key actors in the planning process can cause delays in critical information sharing.
• Complications of guard and reserve planning. Across 2nd Air Force, the guard and reserve fill on average only 65–70 percent of the seats allocated to them.

Inefficiencies in the Flow of Students Through the Pipeline Stem From:

• Inefficiencies associated with time not in training.
• Lack of realistic and consistent metrics, which can provide false perceptions of the status of individual students, the instructor pool, required resources, and the success of the training system as a whole.

Resource Insufficiencies Stem From:

• Improper rightsizing of the supply of instructors. Finding the right balance between having too many instructors or too few is the most significant resourcing challenge for technical training.
• Inadequate resourcing of training management and instructional systems, which can seriously undermine the delivery of training and lead to long student wait times and increased costs.

This report presents RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF)'s assessment of the processes and policies in the U.S. Air Force nonrated technical training pipeline. In recent years the Air Force has faced persistent resource constraints while trying to deliver necessary training to its officer and enlisted forces. The Air Force asked PAF to identify opportunities for optimizing processes at all levels of the nonrated technical training pipeline and to recommend policy and process changes that could improve efficiency. PAF used a mixed-methods approach to address the research objective, combining the results of three primary research streams — stakeholder discussions and process observations; analysis of training data and metrics; and development of a technical training pipeline model — to identify inefficiencies in the technical training system. PAF identified numerous inefficiencies that fall into three broad areas: planning, flow of students, and resources. The report concludes with recommendations for improvements to training processes and outlines the benefits that can be obtained from proactive modeling and the development and tracking of effective metrics. This report will be of interest to those involved in technical training for military personnel.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Inefficiencies in the Technical Training Planning Process

• Chapter Three

  Inefficiencies in the Flow of Students Through the Pipeline

• Chapter Four

  Resource Inefficiencies

• Chapter Five

  Conclusions and Recommendations

• Appendix A

  Details of the Qualitative Analysis Methodology

• Appendix B

  Calculating the Costs of Time Not in Training

• Appendix C

  The AETC Flow Model

• Appendix D

  Summary of Prior RAND Research

• Appendix E

  Example Career Fields