Development in the United States Air Force - Case Study Example

Strategic Business Plan of the of the Table of Contents Research and Development in the United s Air Force The Air Force Research Laboratory is a scientific research organization that is mainly operated by the United States Air Force. The organization dedicates majority of resources towards discovery, development as well as integration of reasonable aerospace war-fighting technologies. The AFRL is involved in planning and execution of the USAF science and technology program as well as developing and providing war-fighting capabilities to United States air, space as well as cyberspace forces (Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 2014a). Currently, the organization is investing in long-term, broad-based research on science and engineering activities directed at development of aerospace. In order to accomplish the objective, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) has established a robust and predictive strategic alliance with other government agencies, academic communities and industries. Nearly 70% of the research is conducted in academia and industry and the rest is conducted in AFRL (Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 2014b). In order to do an in-depth analysis of the USAF research and development sector, SWOT analysis has been deemed appropriate. Strengths Highly skilled, flexible and innovative professionals on staff. Cohesive group. Cultural acceptance and convenience. Workforce diversity. Integrated industry. Weaknesses Rapidly shifting global market. Drastically changing technological sector. Rapid advancement of technology as well as rising competition in the niche market. Limitation in resources. Low availability of capital. Opportunities New developments in communication technologies. Growing recognition of technology and rapid change. Interdependence of partnership and collaboration among niche markets. Threats Technological theft. Intellectual property theft. Conflict of interest. Highly competitive market (Straubel, 2004). The intellectual properties of the USAF Research and Development are stated as follows: Inventions protectable under statutory and constitutional limited monopoly of patents. Artistic and literary creations protectable under statutory limited monopoly of copyrights. Non-statutory protectable trade secrets. Non-statutory protectable common law copyrights. Trademarks that are statutory protectable (LLMC, 1969). These intellectual properties are mainly held by corporate entities that serve as defense contractors of the United States Air Force. Companies such as, A2TECH, Lockheed Martin, Boeing Company, APELLA, Bose Corporation, and Global Defense Technology, are intellectual property right holders. The USAF Research and Development sector can protect its inventions by patents and artistic and literary creations by copyrights. In addition, they can protect a particular product with more than one type of protection. For example, they can patent a particular product and then register its name as a trademark (Gov, 2014). By doing so, the department can restrict others from using products and technologies created by them, without their permission. Furthermore, they can also charge others who seek the right to use a product or technology invented or developed by them. The United States Air Force is striving to use its intellectual properties in order to bring about development in its national war-fighting and peacekeeping capabilities. The inventions made in the field of technology are intellectual properties that are being used in order to facilitate discovery as well as development of fundamental and integrated science, which enhances the future air and space light, leads to discovery as well as development of physical science to enable space, air and cyber power and improves space autonomy and situational awareness for the USAF (Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 2014b). In order to develop and commercialize new products and technologies, USAF research and development initially conducts a test of the technologies that are being developed within the department. Following that, feedback is obtained from scientists and researchers who were involved in developing the products and technologies. The areas of improvements are then addressed and henceforth, the products and technologies are made available for usage. Production and Delivery in the United States Air Force Considering the fact that United States Air Force is majorly responsible for ensuring that the country is very well-defended, production and timely delivery of all products and technologies are of utmost importance. Currently, United States Air Force is mainly engaged in taking deliveries of aircraft missiles as well as war-fighters from its defense contractors. USAF has taken delivery of joint air-to-surface standoff extended range missiles from the Armament Directorate (Kable, 2014). In addition, they also took delivery of C-17 Globemaster III airlifter from Boeing. It is the 223rd and the last aircraft delivered to USAF by Boeing (Boeing, 2014). Even though production and delivery mechanism followed within the United Sates Air Force as well as that by its suppliers is highly efficient, the mechanism is associated with certain strengths and weaknesses. Strengths Effective and efficient implementation of production strategies has enabled the entities to reduce production cost and complexity. Products are highly standardized and appropriate to needs of the department. Steps and attributes that do not add value are instantly eliminated. 100% utilization of plant and equipment. Highly efficient processing lead times. Long production runs minimize capacity losses and yields. Activities related to technology development are properly coordinated. Weaknesses Production schedules are not flexible. Production capacity may reduce demand. Standardization of products as well as limited variety restricts the manufacture’s ability to meet customized needs. Excess inventory has proven to be a financial burden. Disorganized scheduling. In order to compliment research and development activities, the plant has to be designed appropriately with modern technologies. The location has to be chosen in such a way that products that are developed can be tested. All modern technologies associated with development of war-fighters have to be made available within the plant. In order to fulfill the planned research activities, timely delivery of required products is highly necessary. In order to ensure the same, suppliers and contractors have to be chosen appropriately. Until now, defense contractors of the USAF have been very reliable and have done timely delivery. The suppliers have been following just-in-time strategy, which is also suitable for the USAF. In addition, USAF has to secure the fact that their suppliers are ISO certified. The manufacturing requirements can also be outsourced from countries like, China, so as to minimize production cost. All necessary equipments related to development of war-fighters have to be bought. The inventory managers have to adopt efficient strategies in order to make sure that there is no wastage. The production costing has been projected to be approximately between $5.5 million to $7.5 million. The purchasing strategy has to be appropriately applied so as to lessen cost of production. Total quality management strategy has to be followed, as far as quality control mechanism within production and delivery facility is concerned. An appropriate manufacturing resource planning as well as material requirements planning system has to be implemented in order for the production manager to be able to have a strong sales forecast and schedule the delivery of raw materials in appropriate quantities, provided assumptions of machine and labor units. The inventories and warehouse has to be managed in a way, where work-in-process inventories and processing lead times average between 2 to 4 days. The risk management department has to be prepared regarding any adverse scenarios and should adopt effective risk management plans for shielding the production and delivery facilities from being exposed to such risks. Highly skilled scientists (who hold PhD) as well as engineers have to be recruited in the production facility. Inventory, warehouse and Logistic managers with substantial prior experience have to be hired. A clear communication needs to be established with companys marketing, product development, and R&D department, thereby gathering feedback for products and services delivered; this will enable the companies to address areas of improvement. The designing and testing facilities have to be appropriately planned in order to meet rising needs and demands of the market. Supply chain of the United States Air Force The USAF is served by one of the largest as well as complex supply chains of the world. Like other industrial supply chains, it involves transportation, delivery, repair, maintenance, procurement, product lifecycle management and inventory management of both costly reparable items and reasonably priced consumable items with long lifecycles. Unlike commercial operations, main objective of USAF is to provide weapon system ability and readiness to war-fighters so as to render the force adequately flexible to meet any contingency. Currently, USAF through a highly innovative program known as Expeditionary Logistics for the 21st Century (eLog21) is swapping outdated stove-pipe mechanisms and displaced IT systems with an enterprise-wide infrastructure in order to optimize the supply chain (Keller International Publishing Corp, 2013). SWOT analysis of the USAF supply chain Strengths Improve joined network strategic alliances as well as partnership with giant companies such as, Lockheed Corporation and Boeing Corporation. Enhanced potential of lean manufacturing process among companies. Introduction of new technology as well as internet that have speeded up the global supply chain. Enhanced level of security in supply chains due to the use of RFIDs. Incorporation of just-in-time practices in the supplier companies who deliver in a timely manner. Weaknesses Complications arise within the supplier companies as they are busy handling numerous operations simultaneously. Higher employee turnover in a particular year. Increasing intensity of competition. The process involves heavy investment of resources, money as well as time leading the management to overlook the supply chain network. The supply chain companies also resort to outsourcing of production. However, the decision to outsource may result in backlash by media as well as customers, which in this case is the United States Air Force. The supply chain companies of USAF majorly stress on input and output of the system, instead of focusing on internal management issues. Conflicts have been witnessed very often among supply chain partners of the USAF, which in turn affects productivity. Opportunities There is huge potential to enhance security level of the supply chain owing to introduction of new technologies such as, RFID and the internet. Greater attention has been devoted to this field as a result of increasing interest of renowned global supply chain companies. Consequently, newer models of supply chain are also being introduced. IT, globalization and the system of outsourcing has provided the supply chain of USAF with a better prospect of improvement. Growing online markets have made it fairly easy for the supply chain companies to expand internationally. Threats Escalating political issues in the country is affecting operations of the supply chain companies. Recession in the United States economy may also pose significant threat to supply chain operations. Competition from other supply chain companies. The key issues that have been witnessed in the supply chain of USAF are related to: availability and cost of energy; reduced budget of USAF research and development as well as production and delivery sector; ability to secure finance; increasing intensity of competition and sourcing of products from cheaper sources; and locating an appropriate site for setting up a plant. These factors have a significant influence on ways in which supply chain companies are addressing the supply chain issues and making decision for site locations. In order to enhance efficiency of the supply chain operations, following strategies can be applied: Adoption of demand-driven planning that is supported by a real-time demand shaping and insight. An adaptive supply chain needs to be built to support swift planning and rapid execution. Optimize the designs of product for supply, manufacturing, and sustainability so as to speed up cost-effective innovation. Align supply chain of business with organizational goals by linking sales and operations planning with corporate business planning (Slade, 2010). The performance benchmarks of the supply chain have to be set according to industry standards and the same has to be measured and tested at a regular interval in order to ensure that efficiency level of the supply chain operations are being prudently maintained. References Boeing. (2014). Boeing Fulfills US Air Force C-17 Production Contract with 223rd Delivery. Retrieved from http://boeing.mediaroom.com/Boeing-Fulfills-US-Air-Force-C-17-Production-Contract-with-223rd-Delivery Gov. (2014). Protect your intellectual property. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/intellectual-property-an-overview/overview Kable. (2014). USAF receives first production lot of JASSM-ER missiles. Retrieved from http://www.airforce-technology.com/news/newsusaf-receives-first-production-lot-of-jassm-er-missiles-4213019 Keller International Publishing Corp. (2013). The U.S. Air Force Targets a Total Transformation of Its Supply Chain. Retrieved from http://www.supplychainbrain.com/content/research-analysis/supply-chain-innovation-awards/single-article-page/article/the-us-air-force-targets-a-total-transformation-of-its-supply-chain-1/ LLMC. (1969). The United States Air Force JAG Law Review. Hawaii: University of Hawaii. Slade, S. (2010). 5 Strategies for Better Supply Chain Management in the Current Economy. Retrieved from https://blogs.oracle.com/scm/entry/5_strategies_for_better_supply_chain_management_in_the_current_economy Straubel, C. R. (2004). SWOT Analysis for Research and Development. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/28933049/SWOT-Analysis-for-R-D Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. (2014a). Air Force Research Laboratory. Retrieved from http://www.wpafb.af.mil/afrl/ Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. (2014b). The Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Retrieved from http://www.wpafb.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=8131 Read More