Speed of Advance (eBook)

How the U.S. Navy's Convergence of People, Process, and Technology Can Help

Marty Groover (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
180 Seiten
Lioncrest Publishing (Verlag)
978-1-5445-2572-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Speed of Advance (SOA): the speed of a ship anticipated along an intended track; the average speed required to arrive at a destination at a specified time. In the navy, nothing is left to chance. Every strategy is tested, every resource utilized with minimal excess and remarkable efficiency. This streamlined convergence of people, process, and technology is the pinnacle of productivity-and its benefits resonate far beyond military endeavors. As a surface warfare officer, Marty Groover spent more than two decades leading an intricate operational symphony of communications processes, computer systems, and weapons programs. Now, in Speed of Advance, Marty shares what he experienced in the navy firsthand: how to harness the power of technology to drive untouchable results. By eliminating damaging silos and increasing skill sets, Marty shows you how to create an enhanced, synchronized system between technology and the people who use it-a process that will lead you into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Lean. Impactful. Intersected. These are the businesses that will thrive in the challenges of Industry 4.0. This book will show you how to take the first step in the right direction, not by replacing people with machines but by learning how to truly work as one.

Textauszug

Introduction

I’ve Seen the Future

As I look back on my Navy career, I like to think of myself as Marty McFly from Back to the Future because I’ve seen the future in the past. Many of the processes and technology that I used in the Navy years ago, I have applied in the business world to achieve better, faster, and more productive outcomes. I am now helping companies converge people, processes, and technology into a common operational picture (COP) that leveraged Speed of Advance methodology to improve business outcomes.

We are approaching the end of the Third Industrial Revolution, the so-called Silicon Age, and it is entirely possible that we’ve achieved all of the benefits we can get from it. Indeed, U.S. Department of Labor research reveals that in the early years of the Silicon Age, beginning in the 1950s, productivity increased by an average of 3 percent per year, but that trend came to an end around 2010. Since then, productivity has been in consistent decline. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is in its infancy, and the cost of cloud computing and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has reduced to a level that allows companies to leverage technology to create systems that mimic what I had in the Navy: common operational picture capabilities for manufacturing and supply chains.

Source: Michael Brill, Brian Chansky, and Jennifer Kim, “Multifactor Productivity Slowdown in U.S. Manufacturing,” Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, July 16, 2018, https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2018/article/multifactor -productivity-slowdown-in-us-manufacturing.htm.

How can this be? These days, business leaders have access to more tech tools and data than ever before, yet many of them are feeling increasingly overwhelmed. The very advancements that are supposed to make life easier are actually bogging them down because companies lack a simple methodology for integrating people, processes, and technology in a lean way.

Despite this, the situation isn’t hopeless, and it doesn’t have to get worse. Indeed, as I said, I’ve already seen the future. The Navy figured this out years ago. As a vast, complex organization, they’ve been able to seamlessly and efficiently converge people, processes, and technology (or, in traditional Navy speak, “man, machine, and method”) in a way that is efficient, measurable, and reliable. It’s really quite impressive. The secret lies in the Navy’s Speed of Advance methodology, a lean approach that the business world desperately needs. In fact, I am already seeing the amazing difference this approach can make when implemented in civilian organizations.

But before I dive into that, let me share my story.

My Navy Career: A Lesson in Lean

I served as a C5I officer in the United States Navy. C5I stands for command, control, communications, computers, combat systems, and intelligence, and my job was to make sure all communications, sensory, intelligence, and combat systems in my carrier strike group were seamlessly integrated to solve problems and accomplish missions. This role, more than any other, prepared me for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (also called Industry 4.0) more than I could ever have known.

To be perfectly honest, I only joined the Navy in the first place to get a little training in advanced electronics so I could go to the Space Coast and work for NASA. I signed up after a couple of years in college and began my career as an E-1, junior enlisted sailor. Though it was intended as merely a means to an end, I soon fell in love with the Navy.

After completion of two years of intensive electronics training, I was put in charge of the Phalanx CIWS (pronounced “sea-wiz”), a 20 mm point-missile defense gun system on a Naval ship, the first fully contained advanced weapon system in the U.S. military. The Phalanx had a beautiful complexity to it. The self-contained system had its own hydraulics, cooling systems, and a search-and-track radar system, with a vast array of parts all working together to accomplish a single, all-important task: protecting the ship from incoming high-speed missile threats.

The system was self-measuring, using built-in test equipment (BITE), which meant every replaceable unit drawer was filled with sensors conducting condition-based monitoring to ensure every piece was in working order. This was absolutely essential because the Phalanx was a ship’s last line of defense.

Though CIWS stood for close-in weapon system, the joke was that it stood for “Christ, it won’t shoot” because that was our worst fear. When it was time to use the Phalanx, it had one chance to get the job done. If it didn’t perform flawlessly, if every part and every person involved in the operation of that weapon didn’t seamlessly integrate at that exact moment, the whole ship was in big trouble.

The Navy knew this and designed it accordingly. As a close-in weapon system, the Phalanx used its 20 mm Gatling gun to shoot down incoming missiles if they got through other defenses, but it operated with such precision that it could pinpoint a five-inch round. It was an amazing piece of equipment that required a whole lot of work. If a single sensor light went from green to red, I had to prioritize repairs because a single nonfunctioning part could cause the mission to fail. It was a true “stop to fix” system, and unlike the civilian manufacturing world, we couldn’t just implement an easy workaround and call it a day. Too much was at stake.

I used to tell my sailors, “Imagine being in the lifeboat with all of the people who’d cooked your food, washed your underwear, kept the air conditioner running in your workstation. All they’d required from you in return was to do your job the one time it mattered: when an enemy missile was incoming. And the one time they needed you to do your job, the equipment failed. Guess what? You’re probably going to be shark bait.”

I worked with the Phalanx weapon system for seven years, and that experience taught me how to work efficiently, how to find a solution no matter the problem and how to stay on top of a complex system at all times. The system embodied the Speed of Advance methodology because it constantly measured itself against the plan for optimal system operation. Indeed, there was so much to do in order to keep the system running well that I didn’t have time in the day to get everything done unless I worked lean. Therefore, I had to find the best and most efficient way to keep every part functioning perfectly, working with an absolute minimum of errors.

When I went from enlisted sailor to ensign, that Navy mindset only became more deeply ingrained. As an officer, my first assignment was as System Test Officer (STO) of the Aegis Weapon System (AWS) on a Ticonderoga Class cruiser, which used advanced computers and radars to track and guide weapons to destroy enemy targets. Suddenly, I was responsible for all 256 pieces of software required to make the weapon system operate.

The sheer complexity of keeping all of the systems and those individual pieces of software working together, along with all of the people who knew how to maintain them, was mind-boggling. An attitude that said, “Yeah, that’s good enough,” would never have cut it.

Of course, it was more than a single officer could handle, so I had to create a learning organization where every individual was ready, willing, and able to train others on their specific area of responsibility. As a result, there were never any knowledge gaps. The sailors in my department not only maintained the equipment but also operated it in combat operations. These teams were amazing because they were responsible for the end-to-end life cycle maintenance and operations of very complex systems that had to work seamlessly together to drive the combat operation common operational picture.

During my last tour in the Navy, I was Combat Systems Repair Officer at a regional maintenance center, and I had to learn how to use the Navy’s SAP enterprise resource planning platform for depot, technical support, and shipyard level maintenance. I learned about planning budgets, tracking costs, project timelines, coordinating people and equipment. Because I’d worked on self-contained weapon systems, I was used to creating a common operational picture (COP). All I had to do now was expand that idea to an entire maintenance center. It was the same mindset on a larger scale, and it worked beautifully.

From Military to Civilian: Welcome to the Chaos

Once I retired from the Navy, I went to work for Caterpillar, a Fortune 100 corporation that designs and manufactures construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and more. It’s an excellent company, but it didn’t take long to discover a desperate need for the Navy’s Speed of Advance approach to getting things done.

They hired me to work in their legacy factory, where they built Track-Type Tractors, including the D11, 120-ton bulldozers. I felt excited to get started, and I had such high expectations about what it was going to be like to work for an iconic American company.

And then I got there.

I’d never worked for a civilian company before, and when I saw how things were done, I couldn’t believe it. I remember thinking, “How do they make any money here?” Don’t get me wrong, Caterpillar did things very well when compared to other manufacturing companies, but that Navy mindset of efficiency was sorely lacking. To me, it all...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 16.11.2021
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• ISBN-10: 1-5445-2572-9 / 1544525729
• ISBN-13: 978-1-5445-2572-3 / 9781544525723