System Level Production

Transcription

1 I. Program Overview Organization Name/Program Name: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation / Command Post Platform (CPP) Program Leader Name/ Position/Contact information , Phone Program Category Program Background: What is this program all about? (No more than one page). Describe: The overarching need for this program History of the program The product that is created by this program Scope of work original & updated Expected deliverables Current status of the program Lisa Tapscott, Program Manager, lisa.tapscott@ngc.com, System Level Production Need Whether engaged in war, executing a peacekeeping mission or providing humanitarian relief, effective situational awareness is essential to effectively command and control. The Command Post Platform (CPP), deployed at brigade and above echelons of command, hosts connectivity and battle command tools to enable the commander to visualize the battle space and make the right decision based on real-time data. The center of the command post is the Rigid Wall Shelter (RWS), augmented with a transit case system to provide audio/video capabilities. History Northrop Grumman began building Command Posts (CPs) in the early 1990s. Previous CP development efforts involved building unique shelters for each mission and role. By developing a common CP shelter infrastructure that can be used for varying roles and missions, overall life-cycle program cost is significantly reduced and agility responding to critical operational warfighter current and future needs is increased. The Solution The CPP program is the U.S. Army s program of record for command and control platform production. Northrop Grumman designed a common physical infrastructure (i.e. shelter, power, environmental conditioning, and harnesses) to form the building block for CPs regardless of the operational mission. Actual system components are then customized and incorporated into the infrastructure to meet unique mission needs. Product / Deliverables 1) 950+ RWSs, including more than 80 configuration variants of computers, radios, and other system components; 2) 1,500+ video/audio systems; 3) Proven integrated logistics support program; 4) Delivery of more than 30,000 spare parts, over 1,800 tool kits, and three versions of retrofit kits consisting of more than 48,000 unique parts; 5) Tests support; and 6) A complete technical data package. 1

2 I. VALUE CREATION = 20 POINTS Scope The CPP contract was award in August 2004 for the design through field support of the end product. This effort includes delivery of Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) units and Full Rate Production (FRP) units. The initial contract was for the delivery of 748 RWSs, 315 audio/video systems. In order to support on-going conflicts overseas, additional production units were added which has resulted in 950+ RWSs and 1,500+ audio/video systems being delivered under the contract. Status The program is currently in FRP producing an average of seven RWSs a month. Production of video/audio systems has been completed. Several Engineering Change Proposals (ECPs) have been and continue to be incorporated into the production line to address changing government equipment and needs, as well as part obsolescence. Value: What is the value, competitive positioning, advantage, and return created by this program to your: Customers National interests, war fighter Company Strength, bottom line, and shareholders Scientific/technical value (particularly for R&D programs) Excellence and Uniqueness: What makes this program unique? Why should this program be awarded the Program Excellence Award? Customers Several government Product Managers have leveraged the innovative, modular and scalable RWS design for their shelter needs, avoiding multiplicative designs, repetitive testing and additional logistics infrastructure outlays. Northrop estimates the use of the RWS has reduced government test costs for other programs by 20% and the reuse of logistics products has resulted in a 50% cost savings to other programs. Company CPP was initially awarded as a 5 year contract which has been extended to 7 years. The initial CPP award was for $399M but with additional requirements to meet the unit deployments the expected value will exceed $750M. In addition, Northrop Grumman s experience stands to provide substantial shareholder value. It strengthens our experience and expertise in CP hardware which complements our existing software capabilities deployed within the CPs. Excellence and Uniqueness CPP is unique because we adopted an open architecture and common interface standards for hardware integration at CPs. None of the individual mounts, connectors or interfaces are proprietary, difficult to procure, long lead or expensive. This allows adaptability and flexibility for end users and allows them to make changes in the field using existing personnel, spares, tools and skills without coming back to the original equipment manufacturer for assistance. 2

3 III. ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESSES/BEST PRACTICES: (HOW DO YOU DO THINGS) = 30 POINTS Strategic: Opportunity Management - Describe how your program has identified its operational and business opportunity, and manages this opportunity throughout the program s life cycle. Strategic: Strategic Supply Chain Integration and Cost Effectiveness Management: - Describe how your program is integrating its supply chain to assure visibility and adapting long-term cost effectiveness up and down the supply chain. The current contract structure provides several options for production units. In addition to the production efforts, the CPP contract includes contract line items to provide engineering and technical support on a task order basis. Through these task orders we have been provided the opportunity to expand our knowledge on emerging technologies and to incorporate additional RWS variants onto the production line. We have also invested Independent Research and Development funds to design and build the future CP. We have a pro-active Lean/Six Sigma program which reviews our tasks and provides process improvement suggestions. The CPP program involves the integration of hardware/software procured from more than 150 vendors and consisting of more than 2200 parts delivered in a single end item. Active and open competition through the use of sector and corporate teaming agreements or commodity awards streamlines the procurement process with predetermined commodity suppliers and product catalogues to meet most commercial off the shelf (COTS) general requirements. For specialized services or build to suite commodities (fabrication) the use of open competition using yearly Master Pricing Agreements infuses long term cost savings and has helped negate escalation costs and in some instances provided deescalation savings. Strategic: Operational Integration and Systems Engineering Describe the challenges faced by your program in terms of integrating the system into its operational environment and its impact on systems engineering planning and management. Operational: Planning, Monitoring, and Operational challenges occur when your system is required to integrate with others systems designed and built independent of your requirements (network, physical interfaces, radio nets, etc.). The goal of the CPP program was to meet the operational flexibility that allowed for the RWS to be reconfigured by the user to adapt to numerous operational needs. The CPP is reconfigurable and flexible to ensure suitability for Size, Weight, and Power of onboard critical components and interfaces to external organizations. Hostile environments and Deployment Missions can drastically change such as the significant use of improvised explosive devices, this operational challenge had to be dealt with real time by our system engineers to adapt to the addition of the armor requirement. The CPP program uses Earned Value Management (EVM) to track and monitor program performance. EVM is an 3

4 Controlling - Describe your planning and resource allocation processes. How do you monitor and review your program s progress and make corrections to keep the program on track? Operational: Supply Chain and Logistics Management -- What processes, tools and relationship-building methods have you used to develop, refine and improve supply chain and stakeholder integration? Please indicate also methods used to analyze/fact-find regarding supplier proposals. This is one of the most imperative needs of our industry please provide specific details and data that assisted you in gauging the effectiveness. integrated program management process that integrates the technical scope, cost, and schedule conditions of the program in a baseline plan, measures performance against that plan, and provides metrics that highlight variances and performance trends. Our management processes identify problems early, providing time to respond and have resulted in the program being ahead of schedule and within cost all managed using EVM metric. Our key supply chain processes include: 1) New Supplier Evaluation; 2) Supplier Management Team (SMT) and Mentoring; 3) Requirements Flow Down; 4) Source Inspection/Test Flow Down; 5) Material Coding and Incoming Materials Control; 6) Analysis, Metrics and Measures; 7) Surveillance and Corrective Action; and 8) Blue Supplier Award Process. In an effort to foster communications and vendor partnership we host a yearly vendor conference. The focus of these conferences is on the programs performance and forecast. The event ends with feedback from the vendors and a measurement our own performance as a partner. Operational: System Integration, Testing & Reviews - Describe the activities and processes used to succeed in your system integration, and testing. How did you conduct system design and technical reviews? Operational: By embracing the Integrated Product Teams methodology, we set the stage for successful design reviews. Through these IPTs the customer was briefed the program status, issues and plans, as well as reviewed emerging designs and results of trade studies prior to the conduct of formal design review. Upon successful completion of all design reviews, integration of the solution began. Although a Technical Data Package is available for reference, Work Instructions were developed to define a step-by-step approach for integrating each variant and are used by the integration team. Northrop implemented conformance inspection and test methods that are appropriate for the life cycle phase of the product. Testing in the initial stages of production required sixteen plus hours after the TRR to conduct and complete Final Acceptance Testing. Working closely with the customer, we were able to reduce the length of time required for testing the shelters by implementing In Process Testing during the integration of the RWS. We also initiated an electronic Test Readiness Review Process (etrr). Overall time for supporting the test process has been reduced by 50%. We are constantly on the lookout for risks and 4

5 Risk / Opportunity Management Describe the processes used to identify both risks and opportunity and to assure potential for both is addressed effectively Please indicate any forward-leaning processes to support. Team Leadership: Team Culture and Motivation Describe how you created your team spirit and culture, and accomplished entire team integration and individual team member motivation. Team Leadership: Lessons Learned and Knowledge Management Describe how you collect lessons learned and best practices, and how they are shared with your team and company to improve performance. Also how are you capturing expertise and knowledge to assure availability over the life of the program? opportunities that may affect the CPP program. We involve the stakeholders, each with their own perspective and knowledge areas on the program. We collect data and develop alternatives, and conduct feasibility assessments ( what-ifs ) to gain an understanding of program issues. We quantify programmatic, technical, schedule, and cost risks and opportunities in a risk and opportunity register for planning and implementation purposes. Risks and opportunities are identified and managed through internal monthly risk management boards. Identified opportunities have been executed through our proactive Six Sigma and Lean initiatives. These initiatives have realized efficiencies in production (42 improvements), supply chain management (78 improvements), engineering (260 improvements) and overall program quality. We conduct all hands on the production floor every other month where we bring in the whole team and discuss the accomplishments over the past couple of months and the plans for the future. The plans for the future provide each individual an understanding of the benefits and growth for the company as well as their professional growth opportunities. We also employ a number of employee recognition from certificates of appreciation to monetary incentives. We utilize a Contract Achievement Program to incentivize employees to achieve certain goals within a set time period which results in a share of profits from sales if they successfully meet the established goals. To incentivize innovation and employee engagement, we established a continuous improvement initiative that provides a mechanism for staff members to recommend improvements to processes and tools. When recommendations are executed, staff members are acknowledged publically and monetarily. Common lessons learned or best practice approaches find critical product and performance information lost in linear, start to end information flows. Critical tribal knowledge is stored in file locations and ignored as static data rather than integrated back into the production cycle. In stark contrast, our Organizational Performance and Effectiveness (OPE) system provides a dynamic, nonlinear, knowledge transfer approach to capturing the wealth or knowledge of a skilled team and then incorporating the captured knowledge immediately into the product life-cycle to affect superior results in all aspects of CPP. When we document lessons learned and best practices we do not simply store the data in system 5

6 Team Leadership: Leadership Development How do you develop team s skills and build future leaders Best (& Next) Practices: Identify your program s specific Best Practices that you believe are unique, and could be shared with others and become industry s Next Practices. files for later review; we build our training programs, improve our processes, and grow our team knowledge base on these captured resources. OPE works in a nonstop cycle or loop where we build on product knowledge and workmanship performance that continually strengthens the business intelligence of our employees. OPE is structured around the understanding that the people who generate knowledge, store knowledge, share knowledge, coach others, and actually use the knowledge on the job, are the very individuals who should manage the system. Team knowledge of product, processes, unique prototype integration data and workmanship techniques is captured in a social media-based Interface System of OPE. Northrop Grumman employees participate in a plethora of externally and internally provided learning venues. A Knowledge Management (KM) Plan aligns and defines employee skills and competencies with CPP business goals: all functional and program training requests are prioritized based on a solid business process where accurate alignments with critical-to-business needs are defined annually, providing optimal resource projections for future learning, skills requirements, and future contract requirements. A collaboration of Learning, Development and Performance (LDP) Teams, representing all functional areas of the organization, strategize via Risk Assessments and Alignment Gap Analysis to identify and prioritize targeted knowledge requirements at all levels of the organization in a successful effort to formulate a lean and quality product in terms of human performance and learning. We have very specific leadership training venues based on an employee s individual level of expertise as a leader. One of these venues is referred to a Leading for Front Line Leaders. This is a training program that accelerates the learning curve for new supervisors (0 to 2 years experience) so that they can successfully lead people in their new roles. We have a similar program for senior managers. Both of these venues focus on developing leadership competency model skills, including personal credibility, leadership presence and leading change. Our CPP has been acknowledged for Best Practices and associated awards by Northrop Grumman and the British Standard Institute (BSI). Specifically, our Knowledge Management, Mission Assurance Metrics, Continuous Improvement Program, Risk Management, and Work Instructions processes all received best practice citations from BSI. 6

7 IV. ADAPTING TO COMPLEXITY: (HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH YOUR PROGRAM S UNIQUE COMPLEXITIES) = 20 POINTS Identify the Program s Market Uncertainty level How new is your product to your market and users, based on the definitions below. Then describe how you deal and address this specific uncertainty: - Derivative an improvement of an existing product/system. - Platform a new generation in an existing product line. - New to the Market a product or system adopted from another market - New to the World - breakthrough product, never seen before Identify the Program s Technological Uncertainty using the definitions below. Then describe how you deal and address this uncertainty: - Low-tech: application of mature, well-established technology - Medium Technology: existing technology modified to meet new design requirements - High-Technology: recently developed new technology - Super High- Technology: nonexisting technology that needs to be developed during the program. Identify the level of your System Complexity using the definitions below. Then explain how you are dealing with this level of complexity: - An Assembly performing a single function. Platform: Northrop Grumman began building CPs in the early 1990s. Previous development efforts involved building unique shelters for each mission and role, increasing costs for unique redesign, test, maintenance, production, training, and field support. Under the CPP contract, a common physical infrastructure forms the building block for CPs regardless of the operational mission. This new CP shelter design increased payload from earlier versions and included the ability to pull a fully loaded tactical trailer at the same time. Key to this accomplishment was a shortened shelter that did not use a towing pintle extension, a lighter-weight shelter structure, and a revised internal layout that moved the center of gravity forward to move weight to the front axle. Infusion of new technologies for computing and networking systems also allowed the design to take advantage of more powerful and more compact devices. Medium Technology: Modern CPs use a lot of commercial off the shelf (COTS) technologies for computing and networking. This equipment is coupled with military radios and external communication networks to provide the rest of the capabilities needed. During the course of the program however, there have been multiple changes in the list of possible radios that can be used and the COTS equipment is constantly evolving from one generation to the next. CPP has accommodated these changes with minimal impact to the design, the Technical Data Package (TDP), production and logistics/sustainment elements. The key to this success is due to our open architecture design and system architecture of the TDP that encapsulates and localizes elements of change. System: CPP is a collection of subsystems performing multiple functions. These subsystems include power generation, environmental conditioning, data networks, and communication networks all integrated into a single shelter configuration. CPPs are designed to be used singly as a small CP, or can be networked together to provide the complex functionality of a higher echelon CPs. The commander in the 7

8 - A Sub-system fitting within a larger system. - A System a collection of subsystems performing multiple functions. - An Array a System of Systems ; a widely dispersed collection of systems serving a common mission. Identify the Pace and Urgency of your team s effort using the definitions below. Then describe how you deal with the program s pace requirements: - Regular timing no specific time pressures. Fast/Competitive time to market is important for competitiveness. - Time Critical there is an absolute and criticalto-success deadline. - Blitz there is a crisis element driving the need for immediate response Other Complexities & Uncertainties - Describe other complexities and unknown factors faced by this program and how you addressed them. field can configure and use CPP in any way that he chooses to meet his intent and mission requirements. This is accommodated by provision of multiple ways to interface individual CPPs together and to other battlefield systems. Time Critical: The pace and urgency of the program has evolved over time. When the contract was originally awarded the CPP program executed an aggressive design, development, and testing schedule that supported an early Milestone C decision. We went from the initial design concept to building production units in 14 months. We continued our aggressive streamlined acquisition cycle to reach a compressed schedule for Full Material Release and Type Classification in less than three years from contract award versus a normal 5-6 year acquisition cycle. In order to support unit set fielding dates we were delivering we have delivered units by a much as 4 months ahead of schedule. We are now delivering 6 weeks ahead of contract delivery dates. One of the requirements for CPP was to accommodate any combination of up to 5 radios selected from a list of 15 different types. This alone produces over 100,000 possible combinations that must be accommodated from a mounting, space, weight, power, interconnecting and cooling perspective. The customer selects the radio configuration they want when the order is placed for the system. This presented a design challenge to accommodate the huge variability. It also presented a challenge in the TDP and configuration documentation areas in order to describe each unit built without having to create new engineering drawings each time a customer ordered a new combination of radios. Our approach to this was to devise a configuration code that is associated with each unit produced that defines the radio suite installed and also identifies the specific portions of the engineering drawing package that were used for its manufacture. We also structured the architecture of the TDP to localize changes for each element of variability so that changes in one thing do not ripple through a large number of engineering drawings. 8

9 V. METRICS (HOW DO YOU MEASURE PROGRAM S PERFORMANCE) = 30 POINTS (Note: We are not looking for $ results, but the relative percentage achieved. In particular indicate what specific metrics and data you are using that drive the program beyond standard measures of schedule, budget, and performance, and which have contributed to your program s focus and its success.) Customer - How do you measure the impact of your program on your customer and your customer s satisfaction? Include a description of your metrics, as well as numerical evidence. Performance - How do you measure your program s performance in traditional terms such as schedule, budget, requirements, and business results? Preparing the Future - How do you measure and assess the long-term contribution of your program to the corporation/organization? We conduct quarterly internal assessment of our customer satisfaction ratings. Specifically we assess the following criteria: quality and professionalism of personnel, quality of products, quality of technical solutions, responsiveness and effectiveness, and overall value. Our internal assessments are then compared to the formal Contractor Performance Assessment Reports (CPAR) that are issued by the customer on an annual basis. Customer satisfaction was reinforced with the ratings defined in the last CPAR (Aug 2010 through Aug 2011). The CPP program received two Exceptional and eleven Very Good ratings. Traditional cost and schedule performance is measured through our Earned Value Management System (EVMS). We evaluate and monitor our Cost Performance Index and the Schedule Performance Index both which have favorable performance of 1.0 or above. We utilize a series of planned measurements and analysis activities to evaluate program, process and product conformity. Technical performance is primarily measured through defects per end product. We assess performance trends to identify areas where work instructions need to be refined to minimize a recurring workmanship issue and to identify which suppliers are providing non-conforming material so that we can conduct root cause analysis and corrective actions. Our methods for measuring product and process conformance, posting the data in easily understood trend and pareto charts, coupled with the incentive program has yielded excellent results. Our in-depth measurement and analysis of our quality data we have been extremely successful in driving down defects, resulting in an overall defect reduction, since 2006, of 62%. Our organization has established a core set of business objectives and a portfolio of other opportunities for current and future growth. The CPP program has been a solid performer to achieve the immediate organization goals and a key provider into the larger strategy of the corporation. Our performance goals are established within our long range portfolio and updated annually with more fidelity. The CPP program is the core element for integrated command and control at the Brigade echelon and the cornerstone for technology advancement and deployability across other Army elements (Air Defense Artillery and Field Artillery, Integrated Air & Missile Defense, Mission Command) and extensible to 9

10 Team - How do you measure and assess the impact of your program on your team development and employee satisfaction? Unique Metrics - Describe any unique metrics you are using to measure your program s progress and how do you focus it for outstanding success. use in the Marines, Air Force, or Navy. In pursuit of one of the corporation s goals to achieve top performance, Northrop Grumman is building a work environment that fosters the highest levels of employee engagement. We have adopted the Gallup organization s methodology. Beginning in 2010, a series of surveys have been sent to our employees with analysis and action plans following the tabulation of results. Among the relevant statistics to come from this effort were ratings for the following statements: 1) The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important; 2) At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day; 3) I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right; and 4) associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work. Our key metrics are focused on the measurement of defects per end product. We analyze defects in terms of workmanship, materials, and government furnished equipment. We have implemented a defect reduction program which includes an employee rewards process. This rewards process incentivizes the production team to drive out defects and variation. The key metric used for this program is our overall defects/unit measurement, where, if the team can reach certain reduction goals from one calendar quarter to the next, the entire team will receive an award based on how well the improvement was. The rewards are simple yet effective (pizza, cake, and gift cards), but this also sends a powerful message to the employees that management is committed to variation/defect reduction. Employee safety is a high priority, with associated metrics tracked at the site and intermediate levels. Fewer injuries lead to better program performance. These metrics are focused on total Occupational Safety and Health Administration recordable case rates for frequency and the days away case rate as a measure of severity. The metrics are housed on a corporate system and reviewed by the site four times per year with a spotlight on injury classifications, root causes, and trends. This information is then used to develop necessary action items or plans to reduce risk factors. In turn, this lessens potential impacts on programs stemming from both direct and indirect costs of injuries (i.e. worker's compensation, medical expenses etc. [direct] and retraining, lost productivity, etc. [indirect]). 10