A systems-based approach to the design, management and integration of enterprise-level change in defense shipbuilding

Abstract

Continually declining Navy surface combatant acquisitions, the war on terror, shifting Congressional priorities and a consolidated shipbuilding industrial base are forcing fundamental changes in the defense shipbuilding market. Shipbuilding in the United States is a mature industry that requires an experienced workforce and a predictable workload to design and construct an extremely complex product. However, naval planning and Congressional appropriations are volatile and discontinuous processes governed by a broad array of exogenous forces. Substantial changes will be required at Bath Iron Works (BIW) to enable the company to more nimbly and flexibly support the U.S. Navy customer as the environment continues to change and new threats emerge. There is no one, integrated, approach for implementing enterprise-level change from conception through implementation. Large-scale change must be tailored to the requirements of the individual organization and executed in a manner that is acceptable to the prevailing culture, even if the culture itself is an objective of the change. Successfully changing the processes and culture of an enterprise takes time, significant planning, technical and business acumen and must employ elements of organizational behavior and processes, project management, and system design, to name a few. BIW's change effort, known internally as BIW 2011, will be a substantial, complex endeavor requiring a rigorous, systematic approach to design, integration and planning before any implementation begins. This thesis explores the exogenous and endogenous elements affecting BIW and applies the principles of change management and systems-thinking to design an integrated, systematic plan for approaching enterprise-level change.