Every Thursday night, three schedulers at Kestrel Squadron rebuilt the next week by hand: 48 jets, four simulators, 120 instructors and students, and a syllabus that does not forgive a missed event. By Tuesday, the weather had usually torn it up.
The challenge
A fleet replacement squadron trains pilots for the whole fleet. When the schedule slips, the fleet waits. The squadron's own study counted 52 hours a week spent building and rebuilding the schedule, and still no view of readiness past the coming Friday.
“We were great at recovering from Tuesday. We just never got to plan for next month.”
Rollout in six weeks
Skein loaded the squadron's aircraft, crews, qualifications and syllabus in two weeks. For the next two, Autopilot and the schedulers built the same weeks side by side; by the end, the schedulers were reviewing Autopilot's drafts instead of writing their own.
What changed
Weather days now take a three-minute review. The commander gets a 30-day readiness forecast every Monday, with the instructor shortfall in week three flagged a month ahead and fixed by borrowing two instructors from a sister squadron.
And the Thursday night build is gone. One of the three schedulers moved back to the training shop; the other two spend their time on the problems Autopilot flags rather than the ones it solves.
Your squadron could be next.
Bring a real week of flying. We will build it live, then show you the readiness forecast for the month after.