Feature MT 2/2022 · 23 Back in the workplace, Marotta also adjusted its production processes to conform with emergent public health protocols – for instance, changing distances between work stations, installing clear-plastic barriers between them, requiring production floor personnel to ‘mask up,’ and such. A key, emergent addition to Marotta’s defence contract timelines has been the requirement to meet quality assurance and related mandates in the occasional absence of on-site, DoD source inspectors. “We now have to go through a whole new process of taking pictures and sending them, and taking other actions – that really slows down everything. That is not something we accounted for in lead times when we quoted things. Sometimes it has been ‘painful,’” Faulkner added. Another Growth Report in a Challenging Era Remote work. Supply chain assistance. Revamping factory production floors. These are some of the many adjustments the defence industry has initiated in the last 25 or so months – with an indication that many of these modifications will remain in place, even while the pandemic migrates to an endemic. Beyond Sikorsky’s earlier, positive programme production report, is an attention-getting status report – with Marotta emerging from the Omicron wave of the pandemic in better standing when compared to late winter 2020. One key metric has been the workforce increase by about 40% in the last three years – continuing the trajectory of 100% growth over the last five years. A key enabler for the company’s workforce increase has been the addition of a full-time, in-house, dedicated recruiting team. To point, Brian Fly, the company’s VP for Marine Systems, emphasised a key corporate goal for the next two years will be, “We’re going to continue to hire. That is the biggest focus we now have”. With the increasing workforce, he added, “we’ll also be working on training because we have brought on so many new people – we’ve gone from a small company to a reasonably sized company fairly quickly”. In addition to more employees, the company’s uptick in revenue and programme awards has generated the need for a second, nearby facility, into which the administrative and engineering teams will move this spring, allowing for an overdue expansion of production capacity at the current site. Innovation – and Getting on With Business In the post-2019 era of new defence programme norms, acquisition processes and practices, the US defence sector offers two cases of military-industry teams working through challenges at various levels. Their actions offer invaluable lessons learned and templates for future, large-scale disruptive events. At the overarching headquarters level, the Pentagon has extended fiscal lifelines to distressed lower-tier supply chain organisations. At lower programme levels, companies such as Sikorsky and Marotta have used nothing less than innovation and persistence to maintain and even expand their portfolios – from human capital, through the fiscal bottom line and on to other attributes. From tanks to printed circuit boards, companies large and small have struggled to implement safety and alternative working protocols – but the net result is that the show does go on, as here on the M1 Abrams production line. (General Dynamics Land Systems) – requiring innovation and new norms. In a statement Erin Cox provided to MilTech, it was noted that Lockheed Martin consistently monitors Covid-19 impacts, working with US DoD and suppliers “and will continue to accelerate cash to at-risk suppliers and small businesses to meet commitments vital to national security”. The document also revealed that, in March 2020, DoD announced it would increase progress payment rates to large businesses from 80 to 90%, accelerating payments for the completion of work in recognition of the challenges posed by Covid-19. “We have flowed all of the accelerated payments received from the Department of Defense to our supply chain – more than $1.4 billion – giving priority to small and vulnerable suppliers, as we continue our efforts to mitigate Covid-19 risks and promote a healthy Defense Industrial Base”. Even in 2021, Lockheed Martin averaged more than $400 million weekly in accelerated payments to its supply chain partners, with a focus on small and vulnerable businesses in its supply chain. “We will continue to assess Covid-19 impacts, working with our US government partners and suppliers, and accelerate cash to at-risk suppliers and small businesses to ensure that we continue to meet commitments vital to national security”. As this issue went to press, in what is certainly a “new norm” for the defence industry, companies continued to take other decisive measures to maintain and enhance their business models, and strengthen current acquisition processes. Similar to most other sector companies around the globe, Marotta transitioned a number of its individuals to a remote working programme at the start of the pandemic. The early winter 2021 Omicron surge interrupted the firm’s plan to migrate its employees back to their previous corporate location. Faulkner nonetheless emphasised “the company never closed during the pandemic,” as it was able to implement safe working protocols for its operations team. Indeed, the broad topic of IT was at the top of the executive’s list of challenges facing the Marotta team selected to work from home. “The team itself has done a really fine job in working from home,” he explained, adding “the real struggle has been on our IT side – we’ve had our ‘hands full’ with the different platforms that we use to communicate. And this really makes it difficult”. Beyond the technology challenges was the human factor of working virtually – in particular, the loss of genuine face-to-face interaction among team members. “It’s really difficult not to be there in person, to get some of the synergies that you want and you do lose out on people being in the same room trying to pick up on what other people are doing,” Faulkner reflected. As of 12 January, Marotta predicted that its remaining work-from-home employees would soon begin to migrate back to their offices on a limited, ‘hybrid’ weekly schedule. Based in New Orleans, Marty Kauchak, a former US Navy Captain, acts as MilTech’s North American Bureau Chief. At Sikorsky’s Stratford plant, employees use 3D work instructions, new titanium machining centres and multi-floor ergonomic platforms on the CH-53K production line. (Photo: Sikorsky/Lockheed Martin) f f
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