Do not go above and beyond Published Oct. 24, 2007 By Chief Master Sgt. Daniel Romano 605th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron MCGUIRE AFB, N.J. -- Are you ready for the Unit Compliance Inspection to be over? The best way to get through this or any inspection is to not go above and beyond but to stick to the minimum required. That's right, do the minimum required. I contend we all can go above and beyond the call of duty by meeting the minimum required criteria established in the AFIs, technical orders, local operating instructions or whatever other instruction you follow. A simple definition of the phrase "to go above and beyond the call of duty" indicates to give much more than should be expected. Another way to put it is to surpass the written guidance that we all follow in our duties. Whether you are an aircraft maintainer, security police, civil engineering or any other job, everyone has some sort of written guidance to follow. The established instructions are already written for you to be outstanding. During the upcoming UCI/LSEP inspection, if everyone complied with the minimum requirement according to the established instructions, with a positive attitude, we have the potential to be outstanding. Any discrepancy the inspection team finds has to have a reference. Most, if not all, violations are avoidable if you simply followed the written instructions for your job. I understand some customer service jobs may not be as cut and dry as I make this sound. There may be more variables to interpret during customer service interactions. However, there are still instructions and training to handle customer service situations. Sporadically, we all fall short of this minimum instruction, which creates extensive amounts of work for everyone. I am not suggesting anyone purposely violates the written instructions. Most of McGuire is working at a high ops tempo and does not having enough manpower. The tempo will not slow down once the UCI/LSEP team departs, and manpower levels will not increase for a very long time, if ever. One sure way to improve yourself and your operation is to follow the established instructions for your job, the first time and every time. We always find the time to do the job properly the second or third time around; why not the first? It saves you and everyone around you unnecessary work; then we can focus that time savings on other important duties. Let me fast forward to Dec. 1: The inspection team is gone and not coming back. What is your plan regarding the processes and procedures you just worked so hard to ensure were in inspection order? There are two options: one is to relax, take it easy, and let all processes and procedures slide back to a substandard condition; or two, keep everything at the quality level you have worked so hard to get it. If you decide to only look at the condition of you own car once every two years you will have more problems than if you kept it at a quality standard all year around. The same holds true for everything you have been working so hard to do for the inspection. It is much easier to routinely monitor and adjust the processes and procedures, keeping them at a quality standard, instead of letting them go until the next inspection and having to start over again. You will find that if you stick to the established instructions for your job, you will always do better than if you fail to follow them. Simply follow the book! Although we commonly refer to our written instructions as the minimum standard, I believe the authors have set the criteria at a level that will produce outstanding results if followed. Finally, we can improve the efficiency of our respective organization by achieving high standards, keeping them there and not digressing to a lower level. Yes, it's a lot of work but that is what I am trying to do. You?