Original Date: 02/19/2007
Revision Date: / /

Raytheon Company is a technology leader specializing in defense, homeland security, and other government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 85 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the art electronics, mission systems integration, and other capabilities in the areas of sensing, effects, command and control, communications and intelligence systems, and a broad range of mission support services. The company’s six major businesses include Network Centric Systems, Missile Systems, Integrated Defense Systems, Space & Airborne Systems, Intelligence & Information Systems, and Raytheon Technical Services Company. The BMP Survey was conducted at the Network Centric Systems (NCS) Manufacturing Center in Largo, Florida, the week of February 19, 2007.

With headquarters in McKinney, Texas, Raytheon NCS develops and produces mission solutions for networking, command and control, battlespace awareness, and air traffic management. Programs include civilian applications, command and control systems, integrated communications systems, and netted sensor systems. NCS serves all branches of the United States military, the National Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Aviation Administration, and other U.S. national security agencies as well as international customers. The NCS Largo, Florida, facility designs, develops, manufactures, and supports products, systems, and software that provide critical command, control, and communications capabilities that include antennas, radios, cables, and vehicle integration parts. Ninety-five percent of the products manufactured are for the military at Largo’s 343,000-square- foot facility, where product designs are received from five NCS design centers that support 28 major programs. NCS design centers are located in Marlborough, Massachusetts; St. Petersburg, Florida; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Towson, Maryland; and Fullerton, California.

The NCS Largo facility is home to 725 Raytheon employees, 60% of whom are manufacturing personnel. The remaining 40% of the Largo facility population work in functions such as Quality, Security, Contracts, Engineering, Facilities, Finance, Information Technology, Supply Chain, and Human Resources. Supply Chain is approximately 15% of the Largo workforce.

The facility that houses the Largo Manufacturing Operations dates back to 1956 when it was constructed by General Electric (GE). It was then sold to the Atomic Energy Commission who, in return, awarded GE a contract to operate the facility for 25 years. In March 1995, the Department of Energy sold the Pinellas Plant to the Pinellas County Industry Council. The name of the facility changed to the Pinellas Science, Technology and Research (STAR) Center.

Raytheon became the STAR Center’s anchor tenant in August 1998 and leases approximately 42% of the Center’s space. The same year, the Pinellas STAR Center was renamed the Young-Rainey STAR Center to honor two Pinellas residents most influential in making the Center successful – Congressman C. S. Young and Charles Rainey, former chairman of the Pinellas Country Board of County Commissioners.

In July 1998 Raytheon combined 11 manufacturing sites into one at the Young-Rainey STAR Center to blend and leverage the superior capabilities by consolidating manufacturing and establishing centers of excellence. Raytheon’s consolidation efforts focused on opportunities to improve efficiency and schedule performance, which was accomplished by consolidating manufacturing for efficient facility use, deploying best manufacturing systems and processes, establishing manufacturing core competencies, linking product design with production capabilities, and realizing increased purchasing power. While the Largo site provided a single manufacturing facility with optimal size, location, and cost, the Tampa Bay area provided a solid resource of professionals with its three million residents, many colleges and universities, government and military installations, and abundance of high-tech and manufacturing businesses. The area is also strongly supported by local, state, and federal governments and offers an attractive quality of life and highly competitive wages.

Raytheon Largo has made great strides to improve business and growth under very progressive leadership with a directed vision for the future success of the business. Management has a solid understanding of the Raytheon culture, especially the principles of Raytheon Six Sigma™ (R6σ). More than 600 Largo employees are currently trained in R6S, with the facility’s goal to fully implement lean across the organization in support of its lean vision “to become the supplier of choice through a culture where all employees strive for manufacturing perfection using lean thinking.”

One of Raytheon Largo’s key processes is its Integrated Product Development System (IPDS), which facilitates the successful management of complex systems. By maintaining a thorough and well-developed 10-gate review process, Raytheon ensures improved decision-making capability through the full product life span, from proposal development through program shutdown. The goal of the IPDS is to mitigate risks so that transition to production is smooth and predictable performance. The IPDS is systems-engineering-focused and fully supports Raytheon’s direction toward being a premier Department of Defense (DoD) systems integrator.

Raytheon Largo places great emphasis on the well-being of its employees and has implemented a variety of processes to ensure that Human Resources has a system for identifying, mentoring, and providing career growth paths for employees and a rotational program that keeps employees motivated and reenergized. Another outstanding program at the Largo facility is the Diversity and Inclusion process that focuses Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) on common goals for individual and business growth. All ERGs are tied together under the Raytheon Leadership Diversity Council (RLSDC) that focuses on areas of mentoring, diversity, and training.

Some of Raytheon Largo’s most impressive processes are its Point-of-Use Replenishment System (POURS), Supplier-Managed Inventory (SMI), and Supplier-Owned Inventory (SOI) – an innovative way to minimize working capital. Procurement groups are now better aligned through improved material planning and strategic commodity management system. By outsourcing many of its processes such as paint systems, environmental testing, and machine piece parts, the Largo facility is able to focus on its core competencies: assembly, integration, and test.

Raytheon Largo also has an impressive Mentor-Protg Program with Tampa Brass & Aluminum (TBA), a small, disadvantaged, veteran-owned manufacturing company in Tampa, Florida. The Largo Mentor-Protg program has improved the capabilities and core competencies of TBA, which has improved TBA’s ability to provide quality castings and machined parts that fully support DoD customers and ultimately the warfighter. Raytheon Largo began its mentoring program by training TBA employees in Six Sigma. A single-process flow was developed and implemented along with other Lean/agile manufacturing processes.

Raytheon Largo has maintained a 97% on-time delivery rating, a 97.5% quality rating, and ISO 9001:2000 certification. Strategic planning was improved by initiating a 5-year strategic plan, capacity-planning analysis, a facilities layout expansion plan, and business systems integration and training. These improvements resulted in a 15% increase in revenue, a 13% increase in new business, a 12.5% increase in new customers, and a 400% increase in new business capture.

The BMP Survey Team congratulates Raytheon’s NCS Largo Manufacturing Center for winning the 2007 Best Manufacturing Practices Award for Excellence and considers the following practices in this report to be among the best in industry and government.

TABLE OF ACRONYMS
The following acronyms were used in this report:

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.