Mission Ready is Inspection Ready

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Matt Davis
  • Air Force District of Washington Public Affairs
Members of the Air Force Inspection Agency visited the Air Force District of Washington to help the Headquarters remain mission-ready, 13-14 January. The inspection is part of a new Air Force Inspection System established to change the culture of Air Force inspections.

"Instead of a unit beginning to prepare for an inspection several months before, even suspending operations to utilize every resource for the effort, the new inspection system has a motto of "Mission Ready is Inspection Ready," said Col. Michael Smith, AFDW inspector general. "This involves a culture of continuous evaluation of our mission effectiveness and efficiency."

As an unbiased outsider, AFIA team members perform evaluations every 16 months to validate and verify AFDW's internal inspection findings and help standardize inspection programs across the Air Force, said Smith. 

AFIA encourages units to "Embrace the Red," which means openly identifying issues interfering with readiness, economy, efficiency, discipline, effectiveness, compliance, and performance. This new practice ensures commanders and functional area managers are aware of issues and can take appropriate corrective actions, said Smith.

"In the new AFIS, work centers do not prepare for inspections. Remember that "Mission Ready is Inspection Ready," so the best thing work centers can do is to perform their mission in accordance with the established instructions, guidelines, and laws," said Smith. "When something hinders your ability to perform your piece of the mission, up-channel the issue and ensure it is seen by your chain-of-command and documented in the Management Internal Control Toolset." 

The inspectors visited a number of offices in AFDW including Equal Opportunity.

"Inspections remind me of what our mission is and at times about things that I should be doing that I don't always remember," said Janice Jackson, AFDW's strategic advisor for equal opportunity. "It tests my knowledge of all the things I do."

Every Air Force unit strives to remain mission-ready, and maintaining readiness takes hard work and daily preparation. With the help of the Air Force Inspection Agency, AFDW works toward staying ready at all times. AFIA will conduct a final Management Inspection in AFDW in June, 2017.