Seattle Consulting, Inc.

Shortening Product Development Lifecycles at BAE Systems

The Non-Line of Sight Cannon (NLOS-C) is one of the US Army's new family of Manned Ground Vehicle (MGV) weapon systems which comprise the Future Combat System (FCS).

In March of 2008, an article in Defense Weekly reviewed the Army's desire to speed up deployment of FCS's MGVs. It stated "The approach with MGV acceleration would be to build on the successes of the Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon (NLOS-C) already under construction".

Part of the foundation of that success was built five years earlier. In February 2003, BAE's Army Systems Division (ASD)in Minneapolis had not had a major system go into production in over 20 years. Crusader, its major new artillery system, had been years in development. It had been recently cancelled during testing. Although the Division used the latest in 3-D CAD technology and sophisticated Product Data Management (PDM) systems, it used serial design / prototype / manufacturing processes which resulted in long development lead times, poor prototype quality and a supply chain unprepared to transition to production.

The Division's leadership team understood they needed a fundamentally different approach for NLOS-C. They established stretch goals to exceed the Army's aggressive deployment schedule, and to Establish ASD as a leader in new product development.

To that end, the Division engaged Seattle Consulting. We quickly put together a cross functional team from the Division and its parent organization. We evaluated existing capabilities and defined what came to be know as the RAPID process for the NLOS-C. The RAPID process had four major components:

Defining and Using Model Based Design

Implementing Concurrent Product and Process Development

Implementing Early Key Supplier Involvement

Targeting to build Prototype #1 as Production Unit #1.

The RAPID process was designed to enable a phased implementation as the program matured and changing budgets allowed. Some elements, such as basic 3-D CAD modeling standards and a modular, testable product structure, were implemented immediately. Other elements were addressed over time.

The success of ASD's management with the NLOS-C program are impressive. Five years later, ASD and the NLOS-C program have reached their goals to be the leaders in new product development. NLOS-C is moving into production and setting the pace for the entire FCS effort.

At Seattle Consulting, we love it when a plan comes together.