Acquisition Reform

Personnel Systems for the Next Century

Travel Reform

FAA Contract Tower Program

Runway Incursion Team

Air Traffic Restructuring Effort

Air Traffic Re-Engineering Effort

Mission Support Development Team

FAA Logistics Center - A Taste of Reinvention

Space and Air Traffic Management System

Airways Facilities National Realignment

Streamlining the Granting of Waivers

FAA Administrative Services Franchise Fund

Consolidation of Accounting Services

At FAA, reinventing government means a fundamental change

in the way work is done experimenting with new ways of

doing business. The agency has created a vibrant

environment where innovation thrives and continuous

improvement is the norm.

People are the heart of reinvention. The FAA is doing the job

with 4,500 fewer people since 1992 and doing it well. Several

key commitments have made this possible. One is teaming

which empowers people. Another is the FAA's Model Work

Environment (MWE) a key strategy in making FAA a great

place to work. MWE helps create an environment that

supports and encourages the contributions of all people and

is free of inappropriate behavior.

The following employee driven reinvention initiatives focus on

cutting red tape, exceeding customer expectations, and

unleashing employee creativity. They bring common sense

and sound business practices into our day-to-day

management.

Acquisition Reform The new acquisition management

system changes almost every element of the acquisition

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process. The new acquisition policies are simple, clear, and

result in common sense decision-making and accountability at

all levels of management. Acquisition reforms have cut the

time to award contracts by half with a greater percentage

awarded competitively.

Personnel Systems for the Next Century The FAA has

made the boldest, most dramatic changes in a generation to

our personnel system. The new system is designed to provide

more flexibility in hiring, pay and placement; recognize

employee contributions; increase productivity; and enhance

the organization's intellectual capital while ensuring fairness

to employees. Using the Internet for job vacancy

announcements has reduced the time to process, print, and

distribute announcements from 3 weeks to 1 day. Managers

can recruit 80 times faster than under the old rules.

Travel Reform Revamped rules, which give greater

flexibility to employees and hold down cost, make sense,

benefit both the employee and the agency. Approximate

savings of $5.9 million for Travel Reform were accounted for

in the FY 1998 appropriation.

FAA Contract Tower Program The FAA has contracted out

109 low activity airport traffic control towers at an estimated

savings of $200 thousand per year per tower. Presently, 158

towers are in the program. The Contract Tower program

ensures that an efficient network of control towers is

maintained. Contractor- provided air traffic control services

have proven to be safe and effective. Savings from the

program have allowed the FAA to cover other critical

operational shortfalls. In addition, the FAA has hired fewer

controllers who are placed in higher volume air traffic

facilities.

Runway Incursion Team A collision hazard on a runway is

termed an incursion. In our Northwest Mountain Region, a

team consisting of FAA staff and airport managers met to

discuss ways to reduce runway incursion incidents. Their

prevention action plans resulted in a 45% reduction in surface

errors compared to FY1997.

Air Traffic Restructuring Effort Air Traffic has improved

the efficiency of its operation by restructuring field

organizations. Program offices have been combined. Position

responsibilities have been re-defined. Responsibility and

accountability have been shifted from second level managers

to first line supervisors and staff specialists. The focus of

support offices and staff specialists has been broadened to

include responsibility for multiple program areas. Second

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level positions have been reduced or even eliminated in some

facilities. Responsibility for day-to-day management of

operations has been moved from second level managers to

first level supervisors. Through the efficiencies gained from

restructuring, Air Traffic has been able to reduce in size by

nearly three thousand positions.

Air Traffic Re-Engineering Effort The Air Traffic Service

is leveraging improvements in automation capabilities to

provide access to information important to its business and to

remove unnecessary requirements from processes. Business

process re-engineering is in place and has produced gains in

efficiency in many field facilities. More benefits will be

realized as regions and headquarters re-double their efforts

and look for ways to reduce or eliminate requirements.

Mission Support Development Team For Improved

Administrative Automation The Air Traffic Service has

created an internal software development team to support the

needs of field facilities. The mission of the team is to

automate processes that have been re-engineered by the field.

Processes which involved multiple staff specialists and

multiple steps, can now be done by 2 or 3 individuals directly

involved in the outcome. Critical information concerning

system operation that previously required hours to prepare is

now available on demand. The team is identifying programs

and processes ready for automation that will provide

additional gains in efficiency.

FAA Logistics Center - A Taste of Reinvention The

Logistics Center provides one-stop ordering and technical

support to 7,000 field technicians. In 1998, the Center

operated with 20 percent fewer funds, yet increased its

performance by moving to a fee-for-service strategy with

customers. The Center also received the prestigious ISO 9002

certification. The certification attests to the high quality of

logistical support for the national airspace system.

Space and Air Traffic Management System The FAA's

Office of Commercial Space Transportation is working with

Air Traffic Services and Aviation Regulation and

Certification to integrate commercial space launch and reentry

operations into the existing air traffic management system.

Airways Facilities National Realignment The FAA

reorganized its air traffic systems maintenance function

nationwide. This realignment exceeded the National

Partnership for Reinventing Government's and the agency's

streamlining targets. Maintenance field management structure

was reduced from 77 offices to 34 with over a thousand fewer

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employees.

Streamlining the Granting of Waivers When people have

good ideas they should be free from government bureaucracy

to get the job done. The FAA is doing its part to unleash

creativity by making it quick and easy to seek waivers of

internal processes that limit flexibility and productivity.

FAA Administrative Services Franchise Fund Franchising

allows components of the FAA to sell services to other

government agencies and retain a small part of the revenue to

reinvest in their operations. The Franchise Fund concept

injects much needed competition and promotes partnering

across government. The fund charges users for the costs of

services they received on a fee-for-service basis.

Consolidation of Accounting Services The FAA is

centralizing permanent change of station accounting

processing for all regions, headquarters, and centers in one

location. This first major step in culture change will result in

greater efficiencies in service delivery, and increased

customer satisfaction.

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