Phase I Submission Name of Program: B-1 Program, Integrated Battle Station (IBS)

Transcription

1 Phase I Submission Name of Program: B-1 Program, Integrated Battle Station (IBS) Name of Program Leader: Richard Greenwell Phone Number: richard.g.greenwell@boeing.com Postage Address: 6001 S. Air Depot Blvd, MC M7-00, Oklahoma City, OK Name of Customer Representative: Col. Michael Senseney Phone Number: michael.senseney@us.af.mil 2014 AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 1

2 Bio for program leader: Rick Greenwell is the Program Director for the B-1B bomber program. He is responsible for all aspects of the program, including bomber development activities, the successful completion of the Integrated Battle Station (IBS) upgrade to the front and back cockpits, multiple other fleet upgrades, life cycle support and ensuring future readiness of the fleet through the Full Scale Fatigue Test and Aircraft Structural Integrity Program. He was named to this position in December Greenwell s diverse background provides a strong foundation for him to lead the B-1 organization of more than 500 employees. He has worked with every branch of the United States military as well as every phase of acquisition in the Department of Defense to include research, development, production and sustainment. His greatest strength lies in charting the course for his team. His success in managing the B-1 program is based on partnering with the customer and the premise that when the customer and contractor work closely together amazing things can be accomplished. He walks the IBS production line weekly and meets with his customer, Col. Mike Senseney, daily. He draws on his ability to connect with his customer and models this behavior for his employees. Prior to this assignment, Greenwell was director of integration for the Army s Future Combat Systems Brigade Combat Team Modernization (BCTM) effort managing the experimentation; modeling and simulation; and integration and verification events on the program. He also was responsible for the Future Force Integration Directorate support in El Paso, Texas. Before he joined the Future Combat Systems effort, Greenwell was the director of Comanche integration and test in Philadelphia. He also held numerous positions in St. Louis, including Avionics System Engineering lead, department head for Avionics System Engineering and chief systems engineer for the Phantom Works Open System Architecture (OSA). In 1999, Greenwell became the F/A-18E/F Block 1 manager responsible for avionics developments to be introduced in the first five production lots of the aircraft. Greenwell joined McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company in 1979 as an engineer and held various engineering positions until 1991, when he became deputy program manager for the Defense Support Program Laser Crosslink satellite program. He holds a bachelor s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame, a master s degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University and a master s degree in business administration from Washington University. Greenwell was involved in the Boeing Executive Development Program in 1997, 1998 and Greenwell has also spent five years as a director on the Board of Governors for the Boeing St. Louis Leadership Association AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 2

3 Phase I Program Narrative 1 Background. The B-1B Lancer entered service in 1985 and has since been one of America s most highly tasked global strike aircraft. Its combination of supersonic speed, intercontinental range and heavy payload have made it the Combatant Commanders strike aircraft of choice, flying more than 81 percent of the bomber combat sorties since The B-1 began as a nuclear strategic bomber, but was converted to a conventional bomber in As a conventional bomber, it employs the largest payload of any bomber in service today. It delivers precision strike and multiple-target capability with a broad range of smart bombs and standoff missiles from three large weapon bays. Its crew includes the pilot, copilot, a defensive systems officer who deals with threats and an offensive systems officer who is responsible for navigation and weapon delivery through the primary offensive avionics. Building on the B-1 s proven success, the U.S. Air Force is greatly improving its future versatility with the installation of the Integrated Battle Station (IBS). The Air Force has said IBS is the most significant upgrade since B-1 production. IBS is an extensive communications and avionics upgrade the most extensive modification in B-1 program history. It brings the cockpit and avionics well into the 21 st century with the addition of full-color displays, moving maps and a new diagnostics system. IBS enhances the B-1 by giving its crew greater situational awareness of what is happening in the battlespace around them, in addition to faster and more secure communication capabilities that improve the crew s ability to engage time-critical enemy targets. According to an Air Force spokesman, This will be a platform that will take us to the next generation of long-range strike capability; increased situational awareness for our pilots, a more reliable and supportable cockpit, user-friendly systems that will help our maintainers and the ability to conduct more effective training and testing in the future are just some of those impacts. Throughout its 30-year history, the B-1 has proven itself to be an operationally and economically efficient strike platform. Its large and diverse weapon loads, ability to operate in all weather, day or night, and its range and speed give it the critical capabilities to respond to a wide spectrum of situations. The IBS upgrade makes the aircraft more relevant and provides the warfighter with a cutting technological edge. Program Excellence. The Air Force presented the B-1 team with a difficult task at the beginning of the IBS development, because the upgrade was originally created from three separate development contracts. In the end, all three upgrades needed to form a single aircraft modification. Boeing and the Air Force recognized that the integration of the three separate development contracts, although difficult, would yield significant cost savings and reduce aircraft modification downtime. In order to accomplish this and for all three teams to meet at the finish line together it required daily coordination within the team and partnering with the customer. The three development program upgrades that comprise the IBS are Fully Integrated Data Link (FIDL), Vertical Situation Display Upgrade (VSDU) and the Central Integrated Test Subsystem (CITS). Fully Integrated Data Link was the first development program. The B-1 FIDL gives the aft cockpit new digital avionics, including a Link 16 data link, which adds line-of-sight capability to the B-1 s existing beyond line-of-sight Joint Range Extension Applications Protocol (JREAP) data link, and integrates the data onto new, full-color displays with intuitive symbols and moving maps. FIDL also enables the aircraft to receive target coordinates directly and digitally rather than the crew having to retrieve them over radio and manually enter the data into the avionics AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 3

4 Phase I Program Narrative 2 The Vertical Situation Display Unit upgrades the cockpit by replacing two unsupportable monochrome pilot and copilot displays with four multifunctional color displays, giving pilots more situational awareness data in a more user-friendly format. The Central Integrated Test System adds a new color display in the aft cockpit and replaces an obsolete computer. The system continuously monitors the aircraft s performance. Ground support personnel also use CITS to identify and troubleshoot B-1 system anomalies. Combining the three major B-1 modifications into one installation will not only save taxpayer dollars, but also will allow us to get the bombers back to the field much faster and with more capability, said Rick Greenwell, Boeing B-1 program director. Boeing s responsibility under the contract is to produce production-level kits that Tinker Air Force Base personnel then install at the Boeing Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Technology Center (MROTC), located adjacent to Tinker AFB. In order to establish commonality among each system and ensure they would work together, the B-1 team first designed a common architecture for the hardware and software. They replaced the B-1 s former federated architecture with a distributed architecture to more easily allow the addition of new capabilities in the future. Distributed architecture also allows data to be shown on any display within the aircraft. These decisions were crucial in setting the baseline for an upgrade that would eventually include nearly 18,000 total pieces. It took a large, diverse team to make IBS a success. Boeing and the Air Force coordinated a four-party memo that outlined the working relationship between the USAF s B-1 Program Office, Air Combat Command, 76th Maintenance Group; and the Boeing B-1 program director that outlined the responsibilities, authorities and accountabilities for the first installation (called the kit proof ) and full-scale production. Kit proof was initiated in November 2012 on delivery of the first aircraft to Tinker AFB. Boeing worked closely with the Tinker leadership team to schedule the initial IBS installation. Throughout the kit proof, Boeing partnered with Tinker to document the changes generated from incorporating three separate modifications into a single production modification. More than 190 parts and 1,363 drawing changes were made in kit proof, with most changes being incorporated before the second aircraft entered production. The production schedule overlapped with the second aircraft entering production before completion of kit proof. This resulted in challenges due to the concurrency of the modification schedule and the fact that all parts for the first four aircraft had been purchased a year before the start of kit proof. As kit proof progressed, the team identified more than 130 parts that could be eliminated and numerous changes in the production flow to reduce flow days. The Tinker-Boeing engineering team developed numerous opportunities to further reduce flow days. One concept that tested successfully was to alleviate the tight space constraints in the B-1 by using consoles from retired B-1s to allow off-aircraft wiring work, thus enabling concurrent work both on and off the aircraft. The combined team established a daily triage meeting to discuss issues and to develop actions identified during kit proof installation. These daily meetings produced several innovative ideas on rerouting or combining the CITS, FIDL and VSDU wiring runs and changing the production sequence to reduce workload and streamline the wiring changes that occurred as a result of executing the three modifications separately. The team also identified several process changes during testing that drove efficiencies into the checkout process. Each change was documented in a kit proof work sheet, dispositioned by Boeing engineers and approved by Tinker planners, to effect changes for follow-on production 2014 AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 4

5 Phase I Program Narrative 3 activities. Each morning Boeing engineers met with their Tinker counterparts to document the dispositions, and every afternoon Boeing teams developed the schedule for drawing updates. Parts changes received the highest priority, and most parts were modified for the next two aircraft in production by working the changes closely with Boeing Production and Supplier Management teams who were coordinating the changes with vendors throughout the country. The IBS program is a study in continuous improvement. The combined effort of all teams dramatically reduced the time to perform the modification by 22 percent between the first aircraft (415 days) and the second aircraft (327 days). The team will continue to develop opportunities that will result in a flow time of only 215 days, a 48 percent reduction from start of production, increasing the availability of aircraft to the 7th Bomb Wing and the Air Force. To ensure proper system integration, the program used strict system engineering principles and performed extensive system-level testing during the development phase. System-level testing used B-1 laboratories located in Long Beach, Calif.; Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.; and Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., as well as laboratories at various supplier facilities. The use of disciplined systems engineering and thorough system-level integration and test resulted in very successful developmental test and evaluation flight test programs and Department of Defense certification of the communication systems. To better support our customer at Tinker Air Force Base, the B-1 program transitioned 275 jobs from Long Beach to Oklahoma City, in addition to the approximately 250 employees who already resided in Oklahoma. Teachable Lessons in Program Execution. At the start of the FIDL, VSDU and CITS development phase, the B-1 Program determined to adopt a common hardware and open software architecture to reduce overall program cost and to facilitate seamless integration between the three separately contracted development programs. The use of common hardware allowed the programs to spread the cost of hardware development among the three programs and simplified the integration between the three systems. Having a common open software architecture not only reduced the cost of software development due to having a single software engineering environment, but also allowed the three systems to easily share data among systems, allowing for any data to be viewed at any display. These factors combined provide the warfighter with a truly integrated battle station to effectively track, target, assess and engage in various environments. Boeing Program Management coordinated with the Air Force to improve execution of the contract effort. Boeing s flexibility allowed the Air Force to combine the multiple installation efforts into a single installation. Boeing demonstrated further flexibility through onsite support, providing the ability to respond to surges in work packages at the MROTC. There was a concentrated effort to stay engaged with the USAF throughout the challenges of sequestration and the government shutdown, and the transition of the Program Office from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to Tinker Air Force Base. The MROTC facility is extraordinarily well suited to support a major modification. It is a 156,254 square foot, full-service aircraft modification facility with three fuel-capable hangars, concrete hangar aprons with space for additional aircraft, secure grounding points, fire suppression, security, weather monitoring, tow way access contiguous with Tinker Air Force Base, aircraft power, and heliport operations. Collocation of Tinker technicians and Boeing engineering promotes many synergies that have saved countless hours with the many issues 2014 AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 5

6 Phase I Program Narrative 4 being worked (both in time and initial dispositions completed in a single day), minimizing downtime for the Tinker specialists. The MROTC is conducive to completing the modification by collocating all of the planning documents, maintenance tooling and equipment in close proximity to all four jets in production. Kit proof parts are also centrally located, reducing the amount of movement required between work areas. During the kit proof, the B-1 team identified several improvements for future installs. Webbing that is used to hold the flight instruments in place required precise drilling of new holes. The team contracted with a supplier to have all the holes predrilled weeks ahead of the deadline, which program leaders said reduced flow days. Another example is the console wiring. By rearranging the order in which the console was wired into the cockpit, they were able to save even more days. Boeing developed a Cost Reduction Initiative (CRI) to combine kit buys for Lot 2 and beyond that reduce the administrative cost of issuing purchase orders. In many cases, Boeing was able to purchase parts in quantity from vendors, thus eliminating over 18,000 purchase requests. The savings from the CRI has allowed Boeing to help preserve defense dollars in an increasingly budget-challenged environment. The cost savings generated by the Tinker-Boeing lean initiatives also helped eliminate redundant parts from the IBS. Boeing partnered with the customer from initial planning, to start of kit proof, to the engineering of an effective process to complete the modification. Tinker-Boeing planners held several coordination events to determine the best scenario for meeting the tight modification schedule. Boeing worked with Tinker teams to lay out the MROTC facility to maximize aircraft throughput. The Tinker-Boeing team designed aircraft parking to allow working on four B-1s at once, and designed the workspace between the two hangars to centralize all planning and kitting functions in a convenient area. The center of the MROTC is dedicated to maintenance and tool storage on one side of the interior space, with kit areas on the other. The kit area was further split between Boeing and the Tinker supply point to increase efficiency of managing the parts for the IBS modification. Kits are delivered to Boeing in the MROTC and Boeing parses the kits into bins that coordinate with the work cards the government uses to schedule the work. This helps streamline the parts transfer process, while assisting the government in not having to break each kit. More time is then allocated to work on the modifications and less time on parts inventory. Summary. The B-1 program s Integrated Battle Station has successfully transitioned from three separate development contracts to full-rate production. The Tinker-Boeing team made the first delivery of the IBS-capable jet to the Air Force warfighter on January 21, providing them with 21 st century technology for the next generation of global precision attack capability. Combining the three major B-1 modifications into one installation and providing the kit proof for production installation not only saves taxpayer dollars, but also reduces technical and schedule risk for the USAF and returns the bombers to the field much faster and with more capability. Boeing is providing engineering support for the modification by partnering with Tinker Air Force Base on the fleet installation. Dyess Air Force Base will be the first to deploy an entire IBS-capable expeditionary bomb squadron overseas in the future, and the entire fleet of aircraft is scheduled to receive the cockpit and system upgrades by the end of Highly qualified people, proven processes, and world-class tools have been the enablers of the B-1 program over the past 40 years. The IBS upgrade is a part of that strong tradition and will help to ensure that the United States stays defensively strong well into the future AVIATION WEEK PROGRAM EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE 6