Casual observers of U.S. aircraft carriers are not casual about them for long. Few people realize the magnitude and majesty of a carrier without seeing it afloat. It is difficult to understand the commitment needed to build such a substantial investment in the nation's defense.
Building on a historic partnership of successful ship design and construction with Northrop Grumman Newport News, the Navy remains committed to a 21st-century aircraft carrier using advanced technological applications. The goal is to create a sea-based tactical air platform that retains the combat relevance of the Nimitz (CVN-68) class, yet is designed with architecture for change. In this way, the Navy can take advantage of maturing technologies that enhance warfighting capabilities and offer opportunities to reduce life-cycle costs.
Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipbuilding is located along three miles of waterfront on the James River in southeastern Virginia. Having built aircraft carriers since 1933, the company has become the primary supplier of those platforms for the Navy. Its employees carry on a tradition of quality design and construction that is second to none—thus, they view any change in the process of building carriers with a healthy dose of skepticism.
In 1994, Secretary of Defense William Perry directed implementation of integrated product and process development (IPPD) in conjunction with certain acquisitions. He mandated its application to design phases and the acquisition process in general. According to the Department of Defense guide, IPPD is "a management process that integrates all activities from product concept through production/field support, using a multifunctional team, to simultaneously optimize the product and its manufacturing and sustainment processes to meet cost and performance objectives." It represents a departure from the traditional "over-the-wall" approach to design, in which each engineering discipline passes work to specialists responsible for the next phases. Emphasis on including various perspectives alleviates many of the barriers among disciplines as ship designs progress to construction and completion.
Northrop Grumman Newport News pursues IPPD because it is sound management practice; moreover, it is the right thing to do. The company is committed to involving customers and stakeholders early in the design phase to reduce costs during construction and throughout a ship's 50-year life cycle. An example of focusing on the design phase is the use of three-dimensional product model design tools that enable engineers and designers to visualize ships before they are built.
Integrated Product Teams
How does the use of IPPD result in substantial improvements to ship design and construction, and thereby keep faith with the standard of "a credit to our country as well as to ourselves" set by the 19th-century shipyard founder, Collis Potter Huntington? Much of the answer lies in integrated product teams (IPTs) and the nesting structure of their leadership—they are the workhorses that underpin the process and have the power to transform the philosophy and principles of IPPD into practices.
The IPTs are small multifunctional groups of people with complementary skills that are committed to a common purpose and performance goals for which the members hold themselves accountable. "Integrated" refers to the blending of disciplines, skills, and perspectives needed to produce a holistic design for the ship. "Product" is the results of teamwork; it includes plans, drawings, materials, manufacturing, and processes. "Team" means the sense of common purpose, complementary skills, and accountability for resources consumed. The IPPD is the concept behind the new design process and the IPT breathes life into it.
A major difference between the traditional method and IPPD—and central to the benefits of IPPD—is the split between the IPT and the functional organization, and how and to whom they report. The teams oversee design processes, make decisions regarding work to be accomplished, and assign work to functional organizations. The functional organization is responsible for carrying out their decisions. For example, if an IPT determines that a set of design drawings is needed, that task is assigned to the functional organization to produce the products. The delineation of responsibilities ensures that each team has a variety of disciplines among its members.
Managers enforce strict distinction between IPT oversight responsibilities and work performed by functional groups. This ensures the teams are multifunctional and multi-organizational in nature, and can make decisions that bring to bear numerous disciplines in programmatic as well as technical matters. Confusion regarding roles and responsibilities for program design and functional work frequently are the fallout of relaxing this kind of structural distinction.
Another structural feature is the nesting concept: an IPT is created through a sponsoring process by another product team at a higher organizational level. The leader of the new IPT also belongs to the sponsoring team and lines of vertical communication are maintained between IPTs in particular areas of responsibility. Compliance with the nesting structure ensures that the lowest-tier team has a communication conduit to the most senior IPT (which often is the program management team).
Employee Development
The IPPD concept represents a significantly different approach to industrial planning and design—a cultural shift from "stove-pipe" management to an inclusive management style. Employees are introduced to the process through three workshops:
- "Approach to IPPD" covers the definition of IPPD, fundamental concepts and principles, and the benefits to be derived from implementation.
- "CVNX leadership" sessions include preparation for leading teams, definitions of roles and responsibilities, establishing trust among team members, empowering members to make decisions, and constructing metrics for technical and programmatic goals.
- "Launch the IPT" is the culminating experience. Team members convene for the first time to establish common goals. They build the team, establish objectives, apply process tools, and construct metrics to use in meeting team goals.
Support services are provided for IPTs as they carry out their charters. Process observations of team meetings may be obtained and specific group-process tools are available to facilitate brainstorming, problem solving, and decision making.
Key Quality Processes
Although various factors have contributed to the success of IPTs, a number of key quality processes are instrumental in providing support for the teams. Chief among them are systems for decision making and communications.
- Managers on the program management team recognized the need for a consistent, reliable way to make decisions in the IPTs. They investigated several problem-solving and decision-making models in searching for a systematic and "engineering friendly" method. The result was an eight-step process used in analyzing programmatic and technical problems. The members of the senior IPT and most upper-level IPT leaders were trained immediately in the new system.
- Implementation of IPPD throughout the product teams involved scores of people from different disciplines, functions, and organizations. Managers recognized the need for reliable two-way communications among all concerned. Because the degree of experience with the new process was limited for most people, the managers initiated an IPPD-focused newsletter, "Cornerstone," which is aimed at celebrating the successes of specific IPTs, clarifying IPPD practices, and providing general program information. It is published monthly and includes timely and crisp chunks of information that facilitate the application of IPPD; special editions announce achievement of major milestones.
Conclusions
Making use of integrated product and process development reflects a comprehensive and complex attempt at organizational change. Notwithstanding numerous challenges, Northrop Grumman Newport News is positioned well for the employment of IPPD.
Further, the CVNX program is an ideal context for institution of the IPPD philosophy. Its introduction will help to ensure the customer satisfaction mandated by the program's vision statement. The company's organizational culture remains proud of its heritage as it adapts to IPPD and its workhorse teams continue to deliver thoroughbred performance to the Navy.
Dr. Bender is a senior operations coordinator at Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipbuilding.