2011 Aviation Week Program Excellence Award Submission. Phase 1. P-8A Poseidon Program

Transcription

1 Aviation Week Program Excellence Award Submission Phase 1 P-8A Poseidon Program

2 The Boeing Company / P-8A Poseidon Program Aviation Week Program Excellence Award: System R&D/SDD Category Background The P-8A, a military derivative of the Boeing Next-Generation , has been designated by the US Navy as the most advanced anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare aircraft in the world and is a true multi-mission aircraft providing long-range maritime reconnaissance capabilities. The methodologies used to plan, design, and build the P-8 have brought a new paradigm to military aircraft development and production with its first-in-industry in-line production process that takes advantage of the proven efficiencies, manufacturing processes and performance of a highly reliable commercial aircraft leveraged into the military market. Program Excellence The P-8A Poseidon program has achieved significant milestones over the past three years. The Navy calls it the most successful major DoD acquisition program in the past 30 years. With a highly successful commercial aircraft being the basis of this military derivative program, the team was challenged with putting into practice their One-Boeing concept and execute a plan to meld two Boeing business units to meet the customer s needs. Prior to P-8A, military variants of commercial aircraft were re-worked from a completed commercial product. The P-8A program has set the stage for how all future military derivative aircraft will be designed and built. The program has incorporated a true commercial airplane in-line production process, with its proven practices and efficiencies. It is customized for all the controlled requirements of the military, resulting in an optimized product at an optimized cost. Over the past three years the program has successfully walked the path from engineering development to production. The P-8A team has been able to optimize cost, schedule and technical performance in order to achieve success, largely through practices such as the lessons learned described below. Additionally, continuous improvements have pushed engineering into the proper manufacturing steps to minimize future production costs. To date, five test aircraft have been completed, three are in work, and a contract has been signed for low-rate initial production planes. Additionally, a final-assembly factory has been completed that will allow the program to expand and also to become more efficient as it begins to build production aircraft. In addition to the production program, the P-8A is in the flight test phase. Three flight-test aircraft and two ground-test aircraft were manufactured to support the full-scale test program. The static test aircraft, designated as S1, was successfully loaded to 80 percent of the expected flight loads in March 2009, without issue, enabling T1, the first flight-test aircraft, to begin limited flight testing. Subsequently, S1 was tested to 150 percent of flight loads, again without issue, to fully expand the flight test envelope. Additionally, ground vibration (both with and without stores), flutter, and systems such as fuel, acoustics, radar, communications, and stores have been tested with hundreds of flight hours logged. Program static testing was successfully completed in January Teachable Lessons in Program Execution As noted, the critical factors associated with any DoD acquisition program are the equally important parameters of cost, performance, and schedule for which P-8A has been no exception. From the outset, the joint Boeing/US Navy program team leveraged their combined expertise and 1

3 aligned organizations to successfully march through the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase. Additionally, lessons learned have been applied nearly real-time into the program to improve efficiencies, as well as passed-on to other Boeing commercial airplane derivative programs expanding the scope of P-8A s influence. Holding Schedule Sacred The Boeing P-8A management team decided early-on that as long as technical performance could be maintained, the most critical component of managing the program would be to maintain the schedule. It was the team s premise that by holding the schedule sacred, cost overruns would be avoided. Additionally, since the program was integrated with the very successful Next- Generation 737 commercial airliner, it was necessary to reserve production slots, amplifying the need to meet committed timetables. To that extent, schedule became the driving program factor. Technical performance, however, could not and has not been sacrificed to meet schedule constraints. The flight test program has shown that the P-8A provides a quality product meeting mission-assurance requirements. Engineering Release and Change Improvements Since the programs Critical Design Review was completed, the management team initiated efforts to focus on meeting individual commitments for drawing releases. A simple bell ringing ceremony developed for drawings released on time to spur teams on to meet schedules. This grassroots effort was supplemented by the institution of two important process improvements: 1) Non-recurring product development (NRPD) and 2) Basic drawing quality process improvements. Because of the cross-functional management team, successes applied from the Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) business units, such as NRPD, were seen as process improvements for Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS). NRPD is an extensive, disciplined and rigorous engineering approach utilized by BCA to mature engineering drawings prior to initial release to ensure functional requirements are met. Experienced BCA engineering teams helped leverage the NRPD process into BDS integrated product teams who had prime responsibility for defining and documenting the militarized changes required to the aircraft. As NRPD was implemented, the cross-functional, cross-organizational, collaborative efforts produced first-time quality drawings resulting in a more stable engineering baseline and improved schedule flow. Additionally, drawing quality issues were addressed though training, emphasis on the use of check-lists and close coordination between data management and the integrated product teams. This further reduced schedule flow and improved the quality of the engineering and reduced subsequent change activity. These process improvements resulted in meeting the first flight milestone and the on-time delivery of five aircraft for the program s test phase. New military aircraft paradigm The P-8A production concept is enabled by an optimal work breakdown structure consisting of basic aircraft components manufactured utilizing the efficiencies of commercial aircraft production combined with the unique and demanding requirements of a complex military weapon system. The P-8A fuselage, manufactured by Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kan., is transported to the 737 commercial aircraft production facilities (Renton, Wash.) where it is joined with in-factory produced wings, and just-in-time available components such as engines 2

4 and the empennage. Since there are military requirements that cannot be met on a commercial production line (security, DoD regulations, etc.), the aircraft is then delivered to the integration and checkout (I&CO) facility in Seattle where the P-8A s mission equipment is installed. By utilizing this commercial aircraft derivative concept, efficiencies are achieved from an established commercial production line, a trained and certified workforce, an agile industrial supply chain and established aircraft support systems. In contrast, previous military procurements utilized existing commercial aircraft which were reworked into a unique military product, sometimes requiring substantial disassembly and major structural modifications to meet DoD requirements. The new Boeing paradigm reduces cost through efficiency, improving schedule, reducing risk and providing a better product. Optimized plans to maintain schedule After initial production began, some work packages that normally would have been performed at Spirit or BCA, were moved to I&CO to maintain schedule. Additionally, work that would have been done at Spirit was accepted at BCA to keep costs in check and meet the schedule. Once initial schedules were met, program leadership initiated optimization efforts to realign work packages to proper manufacturing steps. Those efforts, enabled by the One-Boeing attitude, pushed towards the lowest overall cost, are ongoing today and have resulted in continuous manufacturing efficiency improvements. In addition, careful implementation has kept non-recurring engineering costs in check. Lean workshops were commissioned by P-8A leadership to streamline the I&CO process. Working with BCA, BDS manufacturing employees tapped into the efficiencies of commercial production line concepts and processes. They dissected their production flows recommending movement of certain work packages to either BCA or Spirit and, using constraint-based scheduling tools, optimized the production sequencing to establish a true I&CO moving-line. Implementation of the One-Boeing Concept As described above, the One-Boeing concept contributed to The Boeing Company winning the P-8A contract. It brought BCA and BDS, two separate business units within Boeing, into a working-together paradigm to enable the in-line manufacture of the P-8A Poseidon from the first component to the last verification check. BCA s focus is high volume, low cost, design and build of similar configurations. BCA is a production machine geared to produce a common configuration through the factory on a daily basis. BCA processes, practices, tools and culture are set up to achieve success through producing as close to the same product all the time in a constant environment. In contrast, BDS typically designs custom, low-volume products to meet specific military needs. BDS succeeds by having a developmental production mindset. Tools, processes and culture are all about meeting customers needs where design is king and functionality is state-of-the-art, often resulting in production line changes. With the overarching goal of keeping the US Navy needs as first priority, it was necessary to meld the two business cultures. The BDS/BCA P-8A leadership team was able to think outside the box and create an atmosphere that enabled both IPTs and individuals to be unconstrained in overcoming their differences. Teams that originally were not familiar with their counterpart s methodologies began to see success. Individuals on those teams began to 1) keep the overall Boeing Company in the forefront of their mind, 2) look at the world through the other business 3

5 unit s eyes, 3) become open to new ways of thinking, 4) identify problem solutions without risk of peer or management pressure, and 5) constantly look for new ways through untraveled territory. Once such individuals were identified, they became critical to the program s success and were put in positions to make a difference. Supplier Management Another factor during the past three years has been the management of suppliers. Many suppliers had to invent equipment and sensors to meet performance requirements resulting in a much more difficult situation than purchasing standard production equipment. Additionally, the P-8 derivative for India required the use of indigenous equipment with a 30 percent offset requirement that further challenged the supplier management processes. To address this, the P-8 management team directed the tracking of significant parameters indicative of supplier performance and established an operating rhythm to review those parameters. Items such as risk mitigation, contractual issues, schedule and technical performance were included. Schedule discussions included line-of-balance type views showing detailed part movement through the supplier s processes, as well as reviews of critical program milestones, such as qualification testing. These reviews enabled Boeing to have complete visibility of the supplier s progress and performance, not only enabling efficient management of single suppliers but also driving good program-level decisions by viewing and understanding the whole supply base. Additionally, supplier program managers were identified to support the suppliers to allow Boeing to work the details of the above-mentioned items in real time. In addition, production rate readiness was reviewed annually through the entire supplier base to ensure production commitments could be achieved and maintained, which has resulted in an extremely successful production acquisition. Summary Over the past three years, the P-8A program has successfully gone from engineering design to production, providing the US Navy with the most advanced anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare aircraft in the world. Program excellence has brought this about: the excellence of all P-8 employees from the management team to the smallest supplier. There is still a long way to go in the life of the P-8 program and, if things continue as they have, Boeing will have quite a success story to tell during the next 40 years. 4

6 Defense, Space & Security PO Box 3707 Seattle, WA P-8A Poseidon Program Manager Biography CHARLES (CHUCK) DABUNDO Vice President/Program Manager P-8A Poseidon Program Defense, Space & Security Chuck Dabundo is the program manager for Boeing s P-8 Poseidon program. He is responsible for successful execution of the System Development and Demonstration and production phases of the P-8A program for the United States Navy, and the P-8I variant for the Indian Navy. Previously, he held the position of Chief Engineer and Air Vehicle Team Director for the V-22 Osprey. During a career with Boeing that spans more than 20 years, Dabundo has worked on a variety of programs including the Advanced Digital Optical Control System, V-22 Osprey, CH- 47 Chinook and RAH-66 Comanche. Chuck Dabundo not only displays the Boeing core values, he epitomizes what it means to lead from the front, sharing his time between the Seattle production facility and the NAS Patuxent River test site. His continued drive to encourage and foster strong teamwork within the Boeing Company, and with the US Navy and industry partners, has enhanced execution at every level within the P-8 program. His hands-on hangar deck leadership has maximized productivity and safety while minimizing risk, to ensure that the US Navy receives the best possible aircraft on cost and on schedule to perform their critical missions. His technical expertise as an engineer s engineer is only outpaced by his care and concern for the development of his people, creating pride amongst all team members on the program. This unique trait was evidenced in a recent employee survey which detailed the high level of satisfaction and value felt by those working on the P-8 program. He has earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University, and a Master s of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautical Engineering from Princeton University. 5

7 Representative of Program Customer Name: Mr. Neil Rothback Phone: (work) (cell)