Original Date: 08/07/1995
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems (LMTAS) addressed management and production difficulties by implementing new plans, instituting continuous improvement, and establishing process quality policies. Its successful efforts have included establishing Integrated Product Teams (IPTs)and new management positions, instilling manufacturing discipline, and applying Process Quality Policies. These actions have contributed to a significant schedule improvement and a reduction in production cycle times through concurrence of traditional engineering and Manufacturing Engineering tasks.

LMTAS deployed six process quality policies that resulted in a 96% improvement in the engineering change rate on the F-16 aircraft from Block 50 to Block 50D. The policies required that all engineering design (hardware and software) were to be correct and complete before release; all manufacturing planning/work instructions/procedures were to be correct to engineering design/requirements, adequate to perform the task, and followed in the manufacturing process; all production tooling had to be able to yield conforming parts; all non-conforming parts were to be identified and rejected at the earliest point of manufacturing; in addition, no open Quality Action Request products were to be moved to the next step of manufacturing; all repetitive occurrences of non-conformances had to be identified and corrected; and all non-conforming supplier parts were to be rejected and returned to the manufacturer.

LMTAS made these changes quickly and used these policies to instill process ownership, implement Statistical Process Control (SPC), monitor work instructions, establish preventive maintenance programs, train employees, and identify root causes of non-conforming parts.

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