Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century (AFSO21) is not currently being used as effectively as it could be across the Air Force. Instead of trying to simply save money here or cut man-hours there, AFSO21 tools should be used to help the Air Force fly, fight and win better. the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) has developed a methodology to identify specific target areas where continuous process improvement, i.e., AFSO21, can be applied to improve the bottom line of an organization. the first step of this process is to solicit the key performance indicators (KPIs) that best reflect the organization\u27s mission. the second step is to use and/or develop metrics based on those KPIs to measure the organization\u27s mission performance today. the third step is to capture the trends of those KPIs over time to see if the organization is getting better or worse. the final step is to identify the largest performance capability gaps in order to determine where AFSO21 resources should be applied to get the most bang for the buck . the result of this process should give the decision maker the ability to improve the bottom line of an organization by improving its weakest areas. Air Combat Command is used as a case study for the application of this methodology
