Log Partner Review: Northrop Grumman Technical Services

MLF 2009 Volume: 3 Issue: 10 (November/December)

In a very real sense, I’ve been part of the Northrop Grumman team even before I started my career with the company, when I attended the nowdefunct Northrop Institute of Technology where I earned my airframe and power plant mechanics license. At the time, I was working for Continental Airlines while going to school for my bachelor’s degree, which I completed in 1968, and, shortly thereafter, I began working with Boeing. For almost 10 years, I supported Chinook helicopters providing field service and program management in support of assignments in Vietnam, Korea and the Army Aviation board, as well as nearly five years in Iran supporting the Iranian Air Force and Army Aviation.

When I returned to the U.S. in 1975, I had two career priorities. First, I wanted to return to Southern California, and second, I wanted to stay in the aerospace field. I’m very fortunate to have joined Northrop (now Northrop Grumman) because not only did it have a great reputation with its customers, but its future appeared very bright. My first position with Northrop was as the lead for aircrew maintenance training for the international F-5 program. In the 34 years since, I’ve worked in a variety of technical and logistical program management roles with the company supporting the F/A-18 Hornet, F-14D, E-2C Hawkeye and B-2 bomber, just to name a few.

There have been countless lessons learned throughout the years working for various customers, but there is one rule that I found to be the most valuable: listen to the voice of the customer. The majority of the positions I’ve held over the years have been customer facing, so I’ve become somewhat of an expert. You have to pay attention to what your customer is saying, what they see as pros and cons of a program, and what they think needs to be improved. These are undoubtedly key attributes of program performance, and program performance is the determining factor to just what kind of relationship you will have with your customers.

It was while serving as deputy to the vice president of engineering, logistics and technology that our corporation began to strategize how we could better support our customers while our nation’s warfighters were engaged in a two-front war. After 18 months of research and countless discussions, our leadership and board of directors determined to mass the logistical, training and service support capabilities spread throughout the corporation and formed a new business with the creation of the technical services sector.

As a senior leader in the technical services sector, it was a tremendous learning experience in bringing together thousands of programs, from five of Northrop Grumman’s then seven sectors, seamlessly into the sector without program execution disruption to our valued customers. That’s not to say we haven’t faced challenges. Our biggest challenge was quickly establishing best-of-breed processes and flexible business models to achieve those best-value solutions for our customers. We also looked to develop a process that allowed us to process task orders on ID/IQ contracts in less than seven days as well as having the ability to recruit and get personnel in place quickly to supply warfighter needs. Technical services also needed to develop a quick reaction capability and a process to modify certified changes to weapons systems in support of the warfighter, like the Army’s MQ-5B Hunter, from recognizing the need to change to combat-ready in 90 days, which we’ve continuously been able to do!

One of the areas technical services really excels at is performance-based logistics, or PBL. The PBL movement is results-driven and, as a result, more focused on the warfighter. Once achieved, these metrics increase not only mission capability rates, but warfighter capability as well. This is a change from previous non-PBL where contract focus was on lagging metrics at a much lower level within weapons systems, and as a result, there was little focus on the warfighter’s needs. By focusing on these attributes, we’ve seen substantial improvement across all metrics of performance.

PBL at Technical Services—and specifically within my group, the Life Cycle Optimization and Engineering Group (LCOE)—will continue to be expanded upon as we move forward for, and with, our customers. I also foresee more opportunities for us to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the warfighter the same way we currently do with the Hunter UAS. LCOE is especially adept at capitalizing on PBL because of the flexibility and agility our processes and our business model.

Furthermore, in a warfighter-centric business, technical services has to be able to respond quickly to our customer’s needs whether it’s rapidly deploying a field services subject matter expert to a remote site or performing modifications to weapons systems utilizing our quick reaction center capability.

When I reflect back to when I joined Northrop in 1975, I did so because I believed the company had a very bright future. Today, I feel the same way about Northrop Grumman Technical Services. We will remain focused on listening to the voice of our valued customers while supporting the nation’s warfighters. Undoubtedly, our ability to quickly respond to those needs makes us a leader across the full spectrum of logistical services, and by focusing on modernization through sustainment, we’re better able to provide solutions to obsolescence, while providing world-class program performance that our customers can depend on. ♦ 
 

Dave Werkheiser is vice president and general manager of the Life Cycle Optimization and Engineering (LCOE) Group at Northrop Grumman’s Technical Services sector. LCOE provides a spectrum of product life cycle support. He was named to this position in March 2006. Prior to this, Werkheiser served as the deputy to the vice president for engineering, logistics and technology at the company’s integrated systems sector. He joined Northrop Grumman in 1975, and has more than 30 years of experience supporting warfighters around the world.

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