Implementing a new organization to manage manufacturing technology innovation

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to provide an academic, external perspective to facilitate the implementation and development of a new internal organization for Raytheon Missile Systems (RMS) with a focus on strategy and the organization. The new organization, named the Advanced Manufacturing Development Center (AMDC), is chartered to work concurrently with the design community to develop state-of-the-art manufacturing technology to compliment the next generation engineering designs. This thesis documents the efforts of a company implementing change detailing the specific challenges they faced. The principle lessons learned during the course of this project are (1) that effectively introducing change is very difficult and depends largely on thorough planning and understanding the culture and (2) that manufacturing innovation and development is a critical step to improving the manufacturing capabilities and providing a competitive advantage to a company. The defense industry is undergoing a lean transformation that focuses on "Better, Faster, Cheaper" defense systems demanding better products within a faster development timeframe at cheaper development and production costs. Defense companies have an external push to improve their manufacturing capabilities. In the context of the defense industry, adapting to change is a slow process given the industry's clockspeed and historical development. Making the challenge of effective implementation even more difficult is the lack of urgency at RMS's due to their success in the marketplace. Benchmarking and organizational studies specific to the industry and the company were conducted to identify best practices to provide a basis for the development of the AMDC. This project uses academic research to identify existing theories on manufacturing innovation and organizational change to overcome the socialization and cultural issues that ensued from implementing change and to improve the potential sustainability and impact of the AMDC. An implementation roadmap and operational model were generated that combined the best practices found in industry and academic theories that would help meet the objectives of the AMDC.