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In fiscal year (FY) 2016, RAND Project AIR FORCE conducted a study for the Air Force Air Education and Training Command (AETC) of inefficiencies in the nonrated technical training pipeline. The goal of this research was to identify ways to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of the Air Force's technical training enterprise for both officers and enlisted personnel. The study identified many opportunities to improve the technical training planning process, resource allocation process, and the flow of students through the technical training pipeline. Perhaps the most significant challenge that we identified was how difficult it is for the process overall to respond to changes in the demand for trained airmen, particularly when requirements change in the year of execution. The inability to rapidly right-size the instructor pool was a central shortfall. With the results of this effort in hand, AETC began to look outside the Air Force for insights and best practices upon which they could draw.

AETC asked us to investigate two models of particular interest: (1) how colleges and universities, institutions that similarly face fluctuations in enrollments and demands for coursework, right-size their instructor corps and (2) best practices associated with supply chain management. In addition, AETC asked us to explore one potential solution - a flexible instructor pool - to address the challenging problem of rapidly sizing the instructor corps to respond to changing requirements that occur late in the planning process. Each of these three topics, as posed by the Air Force, is examined in a separate part of this report. In this summary, we offer a brief overview of the findings and recommendations based on these analyses and concluding thoughts on the benefits the Air Force can realize from implementing the types of flexible resourcing options discussed.

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