Raytheon Missile Systems, Ready, aim, fire

Manufacturing in Action, Source : The Manufacturer US

Raytheon Missile Systems relies on six sigma to provide continuous improvements and cost savings for its legacy weapons system. Linda Seid Frembes finds out more

Raytheon is a name that is synonymous with our nation’s defense. With over 80,000 employees worldwide, Raytheon has several dozen facilities across the United States alone. One such facility in Louisville, KY, part of the Raytheon Missile Systems business unit, is the only place where the Phalanx weapon system is built. Raytheon Missile Systems designs, develops, and produces missile systems for critical requirements, including air-to-air, strike, surface Navy air defense, land combat missiles, guided projectiles, exoatmospheric kill vehicles, and directed energy weapons. The Phalanx Close-In Weapon System advanced radar-controlled gun system provides superior defense against close-in air and surface threats. Phalanx is installed on practically all US combat ships and those of 22 Allied nations.

“The Phalanx technology has been around for about 25 years so the product cycle now is about overhauling older systems and adding new capabilities,” says Gary Tragesser, production program director for the Phalanx weapons system and the RAM guided missile launching system.

Phalanx is a computer-controlled gun system designed to defeat anti-ship missiles and other close-in air and surface threats. A self-contained package, Phalanx automatically carries out functions usually performed by multiple systems, including search, detection, threat evaluation, tracking, engagement, and kill assessment. Phalanx Block 1B, the latest upgrade, with its surface mode configuration, augments the proven anti-air warfare capability by adding a forward looking infrared sensor and optimized gun barrels to the Block 1A configuration. The upgrade also adds new control stations with situational awareness that allows operators to visually track and identify targets before engagement.

In the mid-1990s, Phalanx was nearing the end of its life cycle. With zero Congressional funding and budget cuts at the US Navy, it looked as though this legacy system would eventually pass into the history books. With a joint effort from politicians like US Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and other local and state representatives, Phalanx was revitalized by Congressional support. In 2000, Raytheon Missile Systems began to evaluate how to add value to Phalanx. Management planned to reduce the 24 month turnaround time and needed a methodology that could shave it down to 19 months as well as reduce costs. In the meantime, engineering gave Phalanx updates that made it unique to the fleet.

The Louisville facility’s leadership chose Raytheon Six Sigma as its continuous improvement methodology. Deployed successfully in other areas of the parent company, Raytheon Six Sigma had proven that its six step approach could achieve waste elimination and cost reduction. “In Raytheon Six Sigma, we use an academic toolset to dissect the production process,” says Tragesser.

Raytheon Six Sigma was developed by benchmarking other companies and leveraging internal best practices. An internal team, supported by in-house Six Sigma experts, worked to explore approaches and to define a strategy unique to Raytheon. This team was guided by Raytheon’s CEO who planned to bring the company together by embedding Raytheon Six Sigma into the fabric of the organization. His vision was to make customer success a strategic focus for the company, increase productivity, transform the culture and grow the business.

Raytheon Six Sigma follows six steps to success. Step one is to visualize the future with a clear and pressing need for change. This first step starts the change process. Step two is the commit phase where managers like Tragesser must agree to commit resources and manpower to support the project. There must also be a commitment to challenge the status quo. Step three is to prioritize and define goals and action plans. This phase puts rationality to the process and is a key part of creating a baseline. Step four is to characterize, understand and document the current state of performance and translate the current-state opportunities into a plan for improvement. “Only after those first four steps are completed can you begin to change things,” says Tragesser.

Step five is to improve, redesign, reinvent, and optimize the process. In this step, the team is allowed to change the organization, the physical layout, the running rules, the process flows, and the control system. The final step is achieve: to deliver measurable results that change the way people think and act, create knowledge, build momentum for continuous improvement, celebrate success, and get people excited about doing Raytheon Six Sigma projects again and again.

Much of the company-wide success of the Raytheon Six Sigma program lies in a concerted effort to train employees and suppliers. In 2001, Raytheon-Louisville instituted a two-day Raytheon Six Sigma training program for all employees. Today, 98 percent of employees are trained in the specialist certification process. To be a specialist, one first must have served on a team that completed a project. Sixty percent of those trained in the process are now specialist certified.

At the Louisville facility, there are 20 Raytheon Six Sigma projects that are active at any given time. “Some of the best advocates are from the factory floor. Once they see they won’t lose their jobs, they also see how it improves their company,” says Tragesser. “The company has grown by more than 100 jobs over the last 18 months. Our employees see new growth and more business because of our efforts. We have improved so much that we have given the United States Navy no excuses to find another weapons system partner.”

The company also recognized a need to deploy Raytheon Six Sigma into major suppliers. Although not a requirement, the suppliers wanted to support the effort and understood it was a benefit for everyone involved. Suppliers received the same two-day training as employees. To ensure the proper levels of support, management at the supplier level are always onboard and different levels of management are always involved in every step.

With their six sigma program in place, Raytheon was ready to take on the Phalanx overhaul. “These Phalanx weapon systems are sizeable; they weigh eight tons. Getting these systems into our facility for an overhaul is not an easy task,” says Tragesser. When a Phalanx system comes in, it goes into an area called teardown. From this point forward, the system is never sitting still. Saved parts either go back to the supplier for recondition or into their own shops for overhaul or re-painting.

“This teardown area used to be disorganized; not every process here had a direct effect to the end of the production line,” says Tragesser. “After running our six sigma project in teardown, we are more focused on getting the saved parts out to overhaul faster.” Months later when the parts are on their way back, the system goes into the reassembly process for two months. The receiving area is complex and busy, handling seven transactions per hour. Prior to six sigma, any part received took up to five days to be consumed. Now, a part can be consumed within two days of arrival, thus saving over 60 percent of cycle time.

For parts, the previous method was to store the parts in a central location and then have them brought to the work center. “The entire Louisville factory was put through value stream mapping and leaned out,” explains Tragesser. “We reorganized into smaller work centers and the parts go from receiving directly to the point of use space. It took nine months to lean out the factory but we’ve saved more time than that in the production process.”

The final production phase for the Phalanx overhaul is systems testing. Each weapon system goes through 50 hours of failure-free testing before it can be shipped out. After running a six sigma project in the test area, the company was able to take 50 percent of the labor content of moving the system in and out of testing because of an emphasis on workplace organization. “We are so convinced of our quality that we now offer an industry-unique one year warranty. That is significant since it is an overhaul system,” says Tragesser.

With a shorter turnaround time and reduced costs, Raytheon Missile Systems was able to pass those savings onto their customers. The Raytheon-Louisville facility recently received the 2004 Operations Excellence Award from the parent company.

Raytheon’s Phalanx program is currently seeing an increase in international orders from countries like Portugal, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Domestically, the business unit is developing a variant of Phalanx called SeaRAM that will make its United States Navy debut in the near future.

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