I. Program Overview. Organization Name/Program Name: Program Leader Name/ Position/Contact information , Phone.

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1 I. Program Overview Organization Name/Program Name: 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 DRS Imaging and Targeting Solutions (ITS) Apache Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Modernized Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M- TADS/PNVS) Kris Ecker, Program Manager , 100 North Babcock St, Melbourne, FL Sub-System Production Since 2004, DRS has been awarded multiple production lots for this program, originally proposed as a secondgeneration improvement to increase field reliability over the legacy system. The receivers were originally designed by DRS 10 years ago. Over the past seven years, DRS has built more than 2,500 receivers. During this period, DRS has produced, repaired, and upgraded the sensors to increase their field reliability with improvements that maintain their availability to the Warfighter and that increase factory throughput. DRS has upgraded critical parts and electronics, improving the sensor s operational reliability and thereby reducing support costs. This continuous improvement in the technology lowers the rate of return from failures, improving availability. The receiver is currently in production. Additionally, DRS was awarded a five-year, sole-source Performance Based Logistics (PBL) contract in II. VALUE CREATION = 20 POINTS 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? The DRS-manufactured receivers directly contribute to the system level combat lethality and effectiveness by providing world-class range and target identification information. They are also a key contributor to flight safety because they allow the pilot to crisply identify dangerous obstacles and hazards. The program is currently past its peak production years; however, the program represents the core principles and commitment of the company to ensure that the Warfighter is outfitted with the best equipment now and well into the future. Technologically, DRS has continually upgraded the receiver to improve reliability and ease of manufacture and to avert obsolescence. DRS initiated a Supplier Excellence Program as a process to develop our strategic and preferred suppliers through a partnership agreement to implement continued improvements in quality and delivery and service to our 2012 AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 1

2 end customers. DRS directly contributes to the success of the customer s Performance Based Logistics (PBL) program by ensuring shelf availability through rapid repair and forward-leaning procurement. Both parties directly benefit from actions taken to improve reliability, which in turn leads to fewer annual repair actions. 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. DRS maintains a close and constant relationship with its customer to understand the current and future opportunities for the Receiver as part of our cradle-tograve product lifecycle management. New production is forecast for the next 3 to 5 years and is checked on a quarterly basis for validity and any potential changes. These projections are refreshed on a quarterly basis, and when coupled with the tracked field reliability, they provide an early indicator of potential trends that require further analysis, such as either a decrease in reliability or if flight hours are exceeding projections; either scenario would indicate the need to increase supplies on hand and plan for additional repairs. DRS is engaged with our customer regarding obsolescence management as well as potential reliability and technology upgrades. By actively teaming with the customer, DRS is able to draw connections and build bridges to its internal technology roadmap, lining up our product development with our customer s long term needs. Fundamentally, DRS defines strategic and preferred sources of supply within various commodity segments and implements basic ordering agreements to provide strategic business definition and agreement on joint keyperformance indicators and other metrics. DRS initiated a Supplier Excellence Program to build a strong partnership with both strategic and preferred suppliers. The goals of the partnership are to mutually develop an understanding of expectations and requirements between DRS and our key suppliers; to collaborate and share DRS Supplier Excellence Maturity Model attributes of leading indicators to excellent supplier performance; and to aid in growing towards and sustaining exceptional quality and delivery performance for our end customers. As the program progressed from a very high production rate to lower/minimum production rates, the Strategic Supply Chain was forced to evolve to better manage low rate production without sacrificing quality. We adjusted expectations without compromising performance measures. Adjustments were required to ensure 2012 AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 2

3 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 Controlling - appropriate controlling and reporting methods such as ontime delivery metrics; providing regular feedback to our supply base to define floor demand and the addition of forecast demand; regular lead-time monitoring; analyzing requisition-to-order-release time; and regular review of receiving department acceptance and return-to-supplier rates. Per our standard practice, we capture such cost metrics as purchase price variance; material cost productivity; cost reduction on indirect materials; impacts to capital cost; and tracking negotiation performance to areas of additional negotiated results, such as first-time or one-time buys. We provide suppliers with regular feedback on performance metrics and dates that goods are due on our receiving dock. We conduct regular supplier quality performance reviews covering impacts to business performance and hold semi-annual supplier conferences, which the customer attends, in conjunction with the program s specific requirements. The program faces unique challenges that have evolved as the subsystem production has evolved. The current production program utilizes state-of-the-art test systems that operate in a pristine laboratory environment, whereas the fielded system operates in harsh environments. This challenge required an involved systems-engineering approach to ensure that receivers that passed our Final Acceptance Test would meet the specification requirements as tested by our customer as well as on the helicopter itself. DRS procured a Golden shipset (one targeting and one pilotage receiver) that was utilized to baseline performance as measured by DRS test stations as well as customer test stations. These units have been maintained for the life of the program to ensure against failures due to test station drift or other anomalies. Additionally, statistical performance data of critical measurements is captured on each unit tested and shared with the customer, who also extensively tracks and captures the data on their test stations. This tight process control has greatly influenced the operations and engineering tasks of the program. We apply an array of tools to such issues, including an obsolescencemanagement plan, a solid set of processes to address obsolescence and configuration management, maintaining a consistent pool of subject-matter experts on call for production and field issues, an obsolescence tool from Silicon Expert, field anomaly reports, and an MRP-linked Windchill configuration management tool. Our success depends on future planning forward. We develop a five-year strategic plan, updated annually, and 2012 AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 3

4 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. Operational: System Integration, Testing & Reviews - review our current year s plan weekly. We conduct a quarterly program review with our customer covering schedule, material status, returns, and technical and quality issues. Every month, we conduct line-of-business program reviews with senior management and review financial reports. Each week we hold internal-productteam business meetings and program operations status sessions daily, in which we review delivery status and programmatic issues. Every week we review labor reports and hold meetings of our Configuration Control Board and our Failure Review Board. Daily, we review build plan progress and product deliveries status. If particular items have fallen behind any plan, a root cause/corrective action and re-plan are required to be established. From these events and industrial engineering analysis we obtain information on resources available and needed; we can provide support through overtime, hiring, consultants, jobshop personnel, and other DRS divisions with similar skill sets. We use a source inspection process through which our customer is actually in our facility twice monthly to approve product quality. We maintain and periodically review a risk-identification list, with mitigation plans. We follow an integrated business management system and Material Management and Accounting (MMAS) Policy 81-PL-01 for planning, controlling and accounting for the acquisition, use issuing, and disposition of material. DRS holds supplier conferences every six to 12 months, gathering our supply base and the customer. At these sessions, DRS gives suppliers a forecast for orders months and years in advance, and suppliers discuss systems with foreseeable obsolescence issues. The customer thus gains a better understanding of reasons for future changes in costs, materials and processes. DRS standard practice revolves around a bimonthly reporting system to compare open-order requirements to floor demand. The program s low production volume coupled with long lead time and complex components requires constant attention as low volume programs can become derailed very quickly by just one missed delivery. The reports are shared with suppliers to improve demand visibility as well as future commitments, both firm and projected. We generate on-time-delivery performance reports on demand and share the data with suppliers to improve responsiveness to MRP requirements. DRS tests at the component, subsystem, and system levels for new production, warranty repair and PBL repair. PBL 2012 AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 4

5 Describe the activities and processes used to succeed in your system integration, and testing. How did you conduct system design and technical reviews? Operational: 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. items are repaired utilizing the same line as the new production, so all components receive the same high quality of testing. DRS utilizes a weekly Change Control Board, Failure Review Board, program and customer functional coordination, and CMMI Level 3 initiatives for process improvement. Proposed design changes are required to process through a series of gates: impact analysis (to determine cost/benefit of the change), a system requirements review, initial design review, final design review, test readiness review, and production review. DRS employs a detailed risk/opportunity management assessment program that utilizes the best practices from across DRS business units. DRS recognizes that many of its mature production programs share the same or similar risks due to supplier or obsolescence issues. This knowledge is shared in monthly reviews. Additionally, the program closely monitors and tracks all test and field failures to identify potential trends as early as possible in order to contain the potential impact. Opportunities are also closely tracked and shared at periodic business meetings. The PBL program benefits greatly from identifying opportunities to make small investments in improving the reliability of the system that will benefit the program by reducing the number of annual repairs in the future. Obsolescence risk management also presents opportunities to incorporate design improvements for condition based maintenance, an investment now that will also pay dividends by improving reliability and troubleshooting capability of the system. The program team developed a culture around a formal continuous improvement program called Achievement- Centered Teams (ACT). The ACT approach was planned to implement reliability awareness at all stages of the production of receivers. Teams were organized with members from assembly, engineering, quality and other functional areas to define and implement changes, which ranged from build processes, materials and design to introduction of a real-time test monitoring system to gauge the impact of the changes (Statistical Process Control SPC). The underlying impact of the ACT program was improved communication across the functionals, a sense of ownership of the issues, and an empowerment that each individual could positively affect the program. Coupled with the fact that the product they were building was critical to protecting the lives of our forward deployed young men and women, this created a powerful motivation for success AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 5

6 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? 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. Lessons learned and best practices are captured throughout the lifecycle of the program with significant items shared at monthly management reviews. Lessons and practices are also entered into a corporate database. Finally, the knowledge is captured in our process documents, which are configuration-managed to ensure only the latest released documents are utilized in the build and repair process. Our electronically managed Visual Instruction Process ensures all assembly personnel are equipped with the latest approved process documents immediately following Configuration Control Board review and approval. The DRS Human Resources (HR) Department operates and maintains two online tools, MyCareer and MyLearning, to develop and track team skills as well as to identify and build future leaders. MyCareer guides employees in maximizing their potential, sharing goals, and documenting their achievements. MyLearning provides easy access to mandatory training courses, as well as thousands of optional courses. HR also provides consultant services to program leaders, facilitating future bench strength through increased exposure to new tasks and training. DRS offers custom-designed programs on such topics as executive presentation skills, goal setting, and team building. Outside consultants have delivered training on the topic of risk management, active listening, and effective communication, and Finmeccanica (our parent company) provides extensive program manager curriculum. Finmeccanica also has an extensive training matrix that was designed specifically for program leads. Achievement Centered Teams (ACT): ACT was an outflow from the customer s Supplier Performance Management Team (SPMT) construct and guided by Focus Areas defined by DRS Problem Resolution Team (PRT). The teams were formed with the primary purpose of improving quality, meeting schedules and reducing cycle time. Each team was empowered to improve their processes and products. Teams were established from across the functions subassembly, final assembly, test and inspection. Each team was responsible for establishing a charter, defining roles and responsibilities, establishing goals and the metrics to measure them by, and an agreed set of team rules and conduct. Time requirement expectations were established along with coaches assigned to provide training and mentorship. Each team had an established set of deliverables to include the Project Charter (problem statement, project scope, business impact, project plan, 2012 AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 6

7 key metrics, team membership), Kano Analysis (clear understanding of customer requirements), High Level Value Stream Map, SIPOC (suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, customers) Map, and a set of Project Management Tools to help the team manage its effectiveness and productivity. Utilizing the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) process road map, gate reviews were established to measure and track progress as well as ensure thoroughness. The end result was a very thorough and methodical continuous improvement program that was focused on resolving the highest value issues first, yielding tremendous improvements in both internal and external yield rates. 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: DRS designed and built receivers as a replacement/upgrade (technology and reliability) for the First Generation receivers (not built by DRS). Therefore, this was a new platform for DRS. Production has entered a relatively low rate phase with the number of potential sales being fairly well known due to the lead time required. While DRS monitors platform related press releases and contract awards, the primary source for defining the market and reducing uncertainty is through a solid and open relationship with our customer. This information is critical for long term planning and to share with our key suppliers as they make their long term business and strategic plans. The program must manage a range of uncertainty: Low-tech: The system s mature technology requires well controlled drawings and processes, achieved via a strong automated configuration control system for ourselves and our suppliers. Obsolescence is mitigated by a dedicated obsolescence team at DRS and in the supply base who use our configuration control system to monitor and control the change to alternate and substitute parts. Medium-tech: The team utilizes existing root cause analysis in order to dive into the product s subassemblies and apply lessons learned. In doing this, the team modifies the existing product to be more robust in difficult operating environments and over 2012 AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 7

8 non-existing technology that needs to be developed during the program. time. The team will perform qualification analysis and change suppliers if necessary in order to address critical component issues. 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. - 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 High-tech: We are currently investigating modifying the existing receiver to incorporate a staring array. Not only will this incorporate a newer technology, it will reduce the number of moving parts within the system which will increase field longevity. Additionally, as the redesign is explored, all circuit cards will be redesigned to avoid obsolescence issues while leveraging the opportunity to improve reliability. The receivers are a subsystem. We deal with its complexity level by strictly adhering to the flow-down of specifications and requirements. The receivers are tested in a lab environment that is representative of the field environment. DRS continues making improvements to the testing equipment in order to subject the receivers to an enhanced level of scrutiny to ensure optimal field performance. The customer s feedback is extremely valuable in regards to the receiver s field performance, utility and operation. The program is primarily focused on regular timing for the new production assets. New contracts are meticulously laid out in our electronic manufacturing and planning system, which drives all need dates for placing orders and ensuring delivery dates from sub-tier suppliers meet our standard build cycle. The company drives to an internal operating plan which is currently set at four shipsets (eight receivers) ahead of contract schedule. This buffer allows DRS to handle time critical or blitz activities that can arise when either the customer requests a change in delivery to support a unique need or when a supplied item fails quality inspection and must be returned. The PBL contract operates consistently at the fast/competitive pace. The condition of the returned receiver is not fully known until it is tested at the DRS facility. In order to meet this requirement, DRS engineers are constantly monitoring field failure and repair trends to ensure the right mix of parts required are on hand. This effort is greatly aided by information provided by the customer as they are responsible for diagnosing failures at the higher level. Operations maximize throughput by sequencing repairs for the most effective use of personnel and test assets. Due to the dynamic nature and criticality of both the production and repair contracts, DRS closely monitors the 2012 AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 8

9 Other Complexities & Uncertainties - Describe other complexities and unknown factors faced by this program and how you addressed them. progress of each unit electronically. Operators update the status of each unit, along with any pertinent amplifying information on a Sharepoint site. Additionally, members of the Integrated Product Team meet two to three times a week to status efforts and to discuss progress and challenges and potential re-planning. During the early production lots (between 2005 and 2007), the receivers showed a reduced level of reliability. In addition to conducting a Failure Review Board (FRB) to analyze the failures, DRS launched a Problem Resolution Teams (PRT) chartered to conduct a detailed review of all reported failures. The FRB consisted of IPT members and the PRT was chaired by the DRS Director of Engineering and staffed with experts from functional areas across the company. While the FRB focused on the repair and return of the individual receiver, the PRT took a more holistic approach which looked across all failures. This approach, coupled with the experience of the team, honed in on a number of similar video anomalies reported by the aircrews and maintenance personnel. This critical linkage led to the identification and verification that a problem with the resolver wiring was the true root cause for this broad range of anomalies. Once changes were implemented, the receiver field reliability measurement improved nearly 200%. 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? Our customer satisfaction metrics include the calculated MTBF in the field, production deliveries to schedule (averaging four ship sets or eight receivers ahead of contract requirements), customer satisfaction surveys/metrics that cover delivery performance, product quality, configuration control, engineering support, cost control, communications, trust/integrity, contracting/proposals, and supplier management (100% in 2010, 98% in 2011 all blue and green ratings). Performance is measured in terms of contract deliveries to schedule, product deliveries to internal schedules, performance to estimated cost at completion, financial performance (bookings, revenue, profit, free cash flow), quality metrics (throughput yield, scrap, etc.), monthly Stick Rate as measured by our customer (each receiver is tested independently by the customer), and Warranty Stick Rate (one year). The program is measured by the financial performance metrics, customer satisfaction metrics, future strategic plans and business opportunities with the customer, and customer (both immediate and end) feedback at major events AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 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. Impact is assessed during annual reviews and employee goal setting, one-on-one meetings with direct reports, organization-wide surveys, weekly staff and functional meetings and periodic Deep Dive program reviews. The Back-to-Basics program rewards innovative business or operations ideas. The program management team engages with all team members and solicits periodic customer feedback on the program, the team members and the customer relationship. Metrics are captured and tracked at each subassembly area to ensure quality is built into the product as it progresses along the assembly line. DRS is challenged to not only build a complex receiver, but also to integrate an equally complex integrated Dewar cooler assembly (IDCA) that is provided as Customer furnished material. The multiple subassemblies along with the Customer provided IDCA create the potential for stack up tolerance failure. Metric tracking is critical to minimizing potential impacts through statistical process control. It is also important when there is a requirement to influence a Receiver level metric by choosing a subassembly that may test on either the high or low end of a tolerance in order to maximize system performance AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 10