16.6 Random Thoughts

Over the past 30 years working on numerous DoD programs (Army, Navy, Air Force and Missile Defense Agency) I have collected a few random thoughts I would like to share with you:

• The acquisition process is a technical process not a contracting process. The laws of physics and economics continue to work regardless of legal formalities. 
• There is no law that says just because you can design it, you can build it. 
• Managing supply chains is a critical task.  What cannot be seen (visually or digitally) cannot be managed, and you cannot manage what you do not see.  Visibility is a key to managing supply chains.
• Special tooling (jigs and fixtures) are required for almost all mechanical production, construction and assembly. If the tooling is wrong the system will be constructed incorrectly resulting in cost, schedule, performance and quality issues. Tooling is a program in and of itself and must be managed as such. Any tooling problems should be considered an automatic read flag. 
• Use the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) personnel – they are your continuous eyes and ears on the contractor's shop floor.  
• The testing of new manufacturing processes should be done at full production representative scales and at representative process rates, using the actual processes conducted by normally trained manufacturing personnel. 
• Manufacturing operations/facilities are complex, interactive systems and they display non-linearities, interactions, possess feedback loops and time-lagged behavior. As a result, they may produce surprises and cause-and-effect may not be easily perceived. 
• Many managers are under the misperception that identical production facilities will experience the same problems – this is not so. They may also assume that when a facility that is operating smoothly it will again operate smoothly if moved – this in not so; variability due to disassembly, movement, and reassembly will occur.    
• The contractor follows the government's lead. If the PM and Technical Director do not ask manufacturing questions then the contractor receives the message that these issues are secondary. In addition, CDRLs, in and of themselves, do not result in effective concrete action nor will they replace effective communication.
• Major programs are organized around core design team, usually comprised of 20-50 of the contractor's best engineers. This core design team makes 90-95% of all critical decisions. If manufacturing is not one of their primary concerns then manufacturing issues will be delegated to secondary teams. 

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