Background
Alenia Marconi Systems (AMS) is a joint venture company established
by GEC Marconi and Finmecannica the Italian defence manufacturer
to design, manufacture and sell Radars, Missiles and Command
and Control and Simulation Systems. BAE SYSTEMS acquired the
GEC Marconi share with the purchase of GEC Marconi in December
2000. AMS was then merged with the existing BAE SYSTEMS Radar
and Command and Control businesses. The AMS Missiles business
was transferred into an existing BAE SYSTEMS Missiles joint venture.
The restructured AMS remained a joint venture and AMS became
a shareholder in the new joint venture Missiles Company. There
was no Business Improvement organisation or continuous improvement
culture in any of the Finmecannica companies transferred into
the joint venture.
Brief
• Establish
a Business Improvement organisation and structure in the Italian
company and its five operating divisions.
• Deploy the Business
Excellence Model, (BEM), and Software
Capability Maturity Model, (CMM) into Italy and maintain in the UK, measuring
the business performance against these models, using these measures
and the assessment findings as input to the business improvement
plans.
• Mitigate the Year 2000 risk in the ten operating companies in
UK and Italy.
• Achieve in Italy and maintain in the UK ISO 9000 accreditation.
• Ensure Owners best practice and business improvement initiatives
were made available to and deployed as appropriated
in AMS.
• Develop an improvement culture and ways of working between the
Italian and UK operating divisions.
My Approach
• To
work with the Italian Business Improvement team explaining
how we had
organised in the UK, why and the benefits
of the approach taken. It was an objective to have a common
Business Improvement
organisation, processes and measurement models
across AMS but it was essential the Italians bought into the
way forward.
• To develop a close working relationship across the divisions
through regular meetings and joint working on improvement
initiatives where there was a common business need. This fostered
a common
business improvement culture and enabled sharing
of experience, as it was important to make it easy for the Italians
to obtain
advice and guidance on the achievement of standards
such as ISO 9000.
• Implement the Year 2000 Project processes and project management
approach in Italy. It was essential Italy had a robust Year 2000
project as they supply Air Traffic Management Systems that presented
a high profile serious risk to the public.
• Ensure there was an Italian representative on all UK working
groups with BAE SYSTEMS.
• Organise seminars at Director level on AMS business improvement
initiatives explaining their role in achieving the business
benefits.
Achieved
• Common
Business Improvement organisation in each operating division
that was
accountable for Process Improvement, Quality
and Information Technology, coordinated by a small central AMS
team.
• The deployment of the Business Excellence Model, (BEM), and Software
Capability Maturity Model, (CMM) across all the Italian operating
divisions. Mean BEM score improved 33% and three of the five
software units achieved CMM Level 2 (Model has 5 levels).
• Improved UK operating divisions BEM Scores by 100%. Three divisions
achieved national awards for excellence. Two Divisions achieved
a Level 2 Software Capability and one Level 3, Radar in the UK,
this being the first division to do so in BAE SYSTEMS and its
joint ventures outside the USA.
• Annual funded improvement plans in each division and the process
for their development.
• Deployment of the Year 2000 project management processes that
were operational in the UK across the Italian divisions. Completely
upgraded the Italian IT infrastructure, as it was not Year 2000
compliant. Presented status regularly to the AMS Board. There
were no reported Year 2000 failures.
• Active participation of AMS in BAE SYSTEMS improvement forums
for Business Improvement, Software Development
and the Year 2000 project with representation from both UK and
Italy.
• Prepared for outsourcing of IT in the UK.
• Development and deployment of a common AMS Enterprise Process
Model across all divisions that satisfied the requirements of
ISO 9000:2000, all divisions achieved this standard. AMS divisions
in the UK were early achievers of this new standard.
Brian Lewis
Profile
An International Business Change Director experienced in both
FTSE 100 companies and the public sector with core skills in
change management, process re-engineering, information technology
and software development. Impressive record of delivering commitments
and meeting financial targets in a wide range of roles - Business
Turnaround, Channel Development, Business Development, Project
Management - in Europe, USA, Middle East and Australasia.
