Description
Managing the Life Cycle and Modernization of the F-14
Organization: NAVAIR, PEO (AIR)
Team Name: F-14 Tomcat Strike Fighter Program Team
Related Acquisition Topic(s): Acquisition Practices Streamlining, Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Commercial and Non Developmental Items (CANDI), Earned Value Management (EVM), Financial Management, Integrated Product Teams (IPT), Partnering, Risk Management
Description:
The F-14 Program is successfully practicing an aggressive and innovative management strategy of total resource planning and allocation that is producing significant cost avoidance, and freeing up scarce warfighter assets for the Battle Group Commanders. The F-14 Tomcat has experienced a renaissance with the incorporation of precision targeting/strike technology and the ability to instantaneously capture and transmit target coordinates and battle damage imagery to theater commanders. Timely innovations to the F-14 capabilities have made it the weapon of choice in recent actions overseas. The real success story, however, is the management philosophy and supporting tools that are being used to make it happen. It is called Integrated Program Management (IPM), and it is achieving impressive acquisition reform results in the F-14 Program, and is being noticed at the highest levels through its command structure and at the Department of Defense.
The modernization of the Tomcat is no accident. The F-14 Team has been following a strategy for success first defined in its Roadmap for the Future. The Roadmap set the strategic goals for the program and the means necessary to achieve those goals. It identifies the stakeholders on the team, and the long-term operational capabilities for the F-14 in light of the total Navy inventory requirement, and the need to populate aircraft carriers well into the next century. With those goals well established, the Team, spearheaded by Captain T.M. Carson, made three significant changes to their business approach. First, they became their own prime contractor, assuming total ownership and risk for their successes and failures. Second, they reinforced the Team approach and reorganized to better manage the initiatives outlined in the Roadmap. Field sites and organic activities were integrated into the teams to create a seamless command and decision structure. And third, the Program would closely manage all resources, allocating budgets, materials, and personnel where they would be needed to achieve the goals. Having established its “covenant“ with itself, the F-14 Team next developed a set of linking management “tools” that would provide the necessary insight and creditability to keep the Roadmap on track. The Tomcat was off and running.
The “tools “ include an Inventory Master Plan program that allows total aircraft management out to the life of the program, including an integrated Depot and Aircraft Modification Plan that maximize concurrency of work and resource, and reduces turnaround time for each aircraft in the pipeline. Both plans are then integrated and tracked using a tailored software program: the Resource Allocation and Management Plan (RAMP). RAMP incorporates all aircraft in the inventory, deployment schedules and requirements, aircraft availability, and a current and future capability metrics. The Team also employs Earned Value Management (EVM) techniques at the field sites to measure performance against preplanned cost and schedule parameters. Risk is controlled using a Risk Management software tool that tracks and measures capability, cost, and schedule risk against preset program unique parameters and consequences. Each tool, a Contractor-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) product that, in itself is an acquisition reform success story, was tailored to accomplish unique F-14 functionality and has quickly become a prototype for other programs. All processes were modified to integrate existing management structure and ultimately support the Roadmap. Together, they are a centralized data source shared by Depot and fleet facilities providing a coordinated management approach that benefits every aspect of the Team. Effectively used, the F-14 IPM process is effectively used to plan, monitor, and drive the team down the critical path to full problem resolution. This transmits to a rapid and creditable response to every crisis and re-plan, as illustrated below.
In 1999, the F-14 Program realized a huge cost avoidance to its aircraft rework effort when it received the initial results from an analysis of its Fatigue Life Expended (FLE) process. This innovative and risky initiative redefined the assumptions and methodology by which F-14 structural FLE was determined. Through an investment of $10 million in program funds and the establishment of a specialized government/contractor team, an exhaustive analysis defined new methods for controlling FLE data quality, refined and updated existing fatigue life algorithms, and validated fatigue test assumptions through extensive flight test. We utilized our Risk Management process to track critical path elements to keep our Team focused and on schedule. The end result was a dramatic increase in F-14 structural life and a corresponding real cost savings of over $268 million in future budgeted structural modification and overhaul costs. This represented a 27:1 return on investment for the taxpayers across the remaining life of the F-14 aircraft, and provided enhanced combat readiness for the fleet through improved aircraft availability. Once the results were finalized, the Team was able to completely reprogram the Depot and modification requirements in just 3 days utilizing RAMP and provide the Resource Sponsor with a new Roadmap based on increased asset availability. The new Roadmap plan combined with readily available RAMP inventory data, and accurate EVM cost and schedule estimates presented a rock solid redefined inventory.
The F-14 Team institutionalized RAMP, Earned Value Management (EVM) and Risk Management across the entire Team structure to maximize Fleet modernization and resource allocation, and identify risk before it becomes a serious problem. RAMP solved the problem of tracking aircraft and capabilities. EVM drove the detailed up-front planning, resourcing, scheduling, and budgeting of new initiatives, and provided a forecast into the future. At one Field Site $2M was reprogrammed based on the initial EVM planning process alone. The insight EVM offers is paying dividends on aircraft rework and software development and upgrades. This has been accomplished without interrupting the Field Site legacy financial systems or their overall management structure. Additionally, the Field Sites and the F-14 Team use the same common database for EVM recording, reporting, and statusing. RAMP and EVM byproducts highlight risk areas to be understood and controlled. They are then fed into the Risk Management process for mitigation.
The IPM process was also used in developing operational modification plans to augment standard Depot operations. Major upgrades to the F-14 drove the need to coordinate and integrate multiple aircraft modifications with pre-planned Depot work. The RAMP and Risk tools enhanced our Integrated Mod strategy to maintain schedule and to maximize concurrency of maintenance and rework efforts across multiple field sites, contractors, and geographical locations. RAMP tracks each aircraft in the inventory, major operational events for each aircraft and every new capability that is incorporated. RAMP tracks all aircraft by planned deployment and reports the capability configuration of each aircraft in the squadron, and houses the DEPOT Master Plan. The many functions incorporated in RAMP make it a valuable tool and cost saver, and a major piece in the Program’s IPM process. Its benefit cannot be overstated. During 1999, the Integrated Modification Program realized significant savings in negotiating new work using RAMP to verify inventory availability, and future requirements. Risk mitigation was used to track the capability, cost, and schedule parameters that could derail any aspect of the plan. EVM was used to verify estimated cost using historical and estimated cost-to-complete data. Several real benefits were achieved during FY00 negotiations. Integrated Mod reduced its future installation costs by $2M. Additionally, they achieved a reduction of initial negotiated costs for the LANTIRN 40K Upgrade of $1M for FY00, and a similar cost avoidance of $2.5 M for the related PTID installations. Each of these efforts, while small in comparison to the overall Program budget, collectively add to the steady progress being achieved by the F-14 Program in reducing operational costs and contributing to acquisition reform.
The F-14 Program Team practices Acquisition Reform as the rule rather then the exception. The Team’s unique talents, personal drive, unparalleled understanding of the acquisition process, and their close working relationship with the fleet and industry, allow them to have a significant impact in the way they conduct business. The impressive tools they have developed contribute greatly to their many successes. Integrated Program Management is changing the way the F-14 Team is doing business one contract at a time.
