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3 Current Successes in the Integration of Commercial and Military Manufacturing
Pages 14-21

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From page 14...
... Many significant lessons and conclusions can be drawn from the cases the committee studied. The first of these is that opportunities are increasing for the defense industry to outsource manufacturing services for both electronic and 1LTC Walter Price, USAF, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD)
From page 15...
... , enginea General Electric Aircraft Engines (GEAE) COTS enginesb GEAE J85 Propulsion Modernization Programb Used existing systems and subsystems; CAIV fly-away target cost; COTS and GOTS equipment; commercial practices and standards, low-cost manufacturing approach; design for flexibility; nontraditional production industry Automobile manufacturing process for airframe; commercial sheet molding compound materials Used nontraditional manufacturers for engine; design for reduced touch labor; catalog parts Commercial engines used in military applications Using commercial design components from CJ610/CF700: stator casting, spooled rotor, cast mainframe, combustion liner assembly Reduced payload material costs 72%; achieved average unit cost target of $30,000; performance better than predicted Reduced development, tooling, recurring costs; average unit cost $4,500; simplified assembly; light weight; vibration dampening Reduced from 121 detailed parts in traditionally designed engine to 33; 4 hours touch labor Costs reduced, e.g., in KC135R, E-3, KC-10, E-4, Air Force One, ABL, C-5 Longer life, lower unit and maintenance costs Table continued on next page
From page 16...
... 50% reduction in purchase orders All product-flow processes very near or same as previous commercial processes; operating costs reduced $30 million in first year; another $30 million anticipated for second year; flexible dynamic assignment of personnel across plants; workload balancing raised utilization rates to over 90%
From page 17...
... 11 of 14 (so far) critical processes at Cpk > 1.33; PWA assembly 100% automated Survey of 1,340 companies estimated 68% cost acceptable to government and savings from military baseline many commercial contractors for sample modules Table continued on next page
From page 18...
... signal processor (ground environment) Military and civilian radar dual production line cost reduction; $1.6 million invested $19 million PAC-3 cost avoidance Adapted commercial IC chips $357 million cost avoidance for harsh environment and over six aviation and missile long-term storage; $5.8 systems million invested Combined commercial and military production; reduced government oversight and reporting Integrated civil and military processes via evaluation of critical control elements for each process step Compared military-specific, commercial, and new dual use process using military and commercial components on digital control board from GRC- 171 radio Substituted commercial plastic encapsulated microcircuits (PEM)
From page 19...
... USAF ESC/GEC-MarconiPLSR RF module Boeing/SCI SystemsLongbow Apache helicopter computer and intercomd SCI Systems catalog parted USN/SCI/Eaton Virginia class nuclear propulsion controlsd M/A-COM common RF microwave and millimeter wave technology manufacturing basee Evaluated military certified parts, commercial parts meeting military temperature requirements, and commercial parts using both military and commercial assembly Commercial parts and processes substituted for military Built-in dual production facilities using commercial and military parts Dual production and design builds catalog of standard products Military subsystems built in dual-use facilities Military assembly costs 15% higher; using mil-temp passive and 10 commercial (of 33) active components reduced material cost by 23%; quality as good as or better than for commercial process; commercial component failure rate lower than military; process-related failures equal, even with more inspection in military process 65% reduction in material cost, 30% reduction in labor for assembly, test; same electrical performance 1997-2002 scheduled delivery: 2,800+ computers and 707 intercom units Used in AAR47 microprocessor, joint tactical terminal, flight simulators, radar-controlled chassis, B52 pylon tester computer, Navy databus couplers, and Firefinder radar processor Backplanes, module assemblies, circuit card assemblies built in SCI's integrated facility Designed boards, assemblies, Produce in dual-use facilities: products, and manufacturing GaAs MMIC amplifiers, ball processes for dual use grid arrays for base station switching and phased-array radars, radar front-ends, radio circuit boards, microwave cable assemblies, millimeter wave transceivers, voice over IF radio systems, etc.
From page 20...
... For example, in the USAF/TRW MPCL case, a contracting officer had to make an unprecedented determination that the circuit boards in question were "commercial parts" in order for TRW automotive to be willing to manufacture them on its commercial lines. The DOD needs to capture the procedures used in these demonstrations and develop guidelines or standard approaches for similar activities.
From page 21...
... One substantial problem in both electronics and other product types is that many defense designs unnecessarily preclude commercial manufacturing by specifying tolerances and traceability requirements more stringent than those used in commercial processes rather than relying on design for robustness and mature production processes (Winner and Griffin, 1998; GAO, 1998)


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