In a broader sense, it helped that the orga- nizational structure at GDLS is similar to the Army’s in a number of respects, Hay- ward said—hierarchical, using integrated product teams and with similar ways of strategizing. On the other hand, Hay- ward said, a TWI officer also benefits from being assigned to a company that works quite differently from the Army, and can then take those new approaches back to the military.
A major focus in Hayward’s day-to-day work at GDLS was solving problems at the plants or with the vehicles in the field.
“It’s a very similar mentality like we’re going to the battlefield, although I’m not a combat arms officer: ‘What’s the mis- sion? We’ve got to complete the mission.’ It’s the same with sales: General Dynam- ics lives and dies by their sales; it doesn’t matter which division. So problem reso- lution is a high priority. And General Dynamics has got a great group of engi- neers who jump right into the problem and the root-cause analysis and figure out a solution, much like we on the govern- ment side do.”
For Hayward, the single most valuable learning experience in his TWI tour was itself a lesson in problem-solving. Work- ing on the Abrams ECP1 project, he was the project lead for a change in vibra- tion specifications requested by the U.S. government. Tat meant Hayward was responsible for setting up the team, test- ing and a lot of coordinating. Ultimately, however, the government canceled the modification because of the impact it would have had on the entire system.
It may seem to have been all in a day’s work, but to Hayward it was a lesson learned the hard way. “We as a team became so obsessed with the testing and how it would impact one portion of the vehicle and not the entire system.”
He also has developed a better under- standing of profit, which, in his experience as an APM, is a much-mis- understood concept, he said. “Tere has to be a greater understanding of profit.” Companies use some of their profits to conduct independent research and devel- opment, which leads to solutions, and one of the focus areas of DOD’s Better Buying Power initiatives is incentivizing productivity and innovation in industry and government, Hayward noted. He is concerned that misconceptions on the government side have “poisoned the well,” i.e., adversely affected relationships with industry. Now, he said, he asks himself,
“What do I, as a future acquisition leader, need to do to change that?”
OPEN COMMUNICATION Probably the biggest surprise in Hay- ward’s TWI experience was “people’s willingness to tell me their story—once I let them know who I am, because I would never misrepresent myself—and about what they do.”
For the employees, Paulson said, having a TWI officer in their midst is a prime opportunity to learn more about their number one customer, the Soldier. “Our employees take great pride in the fact that we build combat vehicles that save Soldiers’ and Marines’ lives. … And we’ve got a lot of military retirees and folks who have served in the military around here.
“But the fact that we’ve got a field-grade officer working side by side with us in an informal setting kind of gives them the opportunity to find out more about military life, what’s important to them and how we can do better. It’s a real morale-booster.”
In the process, Hayward’s co-workers at GDLS have learned more about the government’s priorities. “People
explain why the government is requiring us to do X, Y and Z. How important, for instance, is the integrated master schedule?” Hayward said. His response:
“As a program manager, you go to your integrated master schedule, and it lays out all the events. And the U.S. government has to have … something that explains in detail what the OEM [original equipment manufacturer] is going to do and how they’re going to accomplish it, because that’s how they’re measured.”
WORDS OF ADVICE Asked what advice he had for Army acqui- sition officers considering TWI, Hayward said, “take advantage of the opportunity,” with its “great challenges and great poten- tial for success … on both sides. It allows you to dispel the myths about military and government workers and at the same time, when you go back to working with the U.S. government, you’re able to dispel the myths about OEMs.”
Paulson’s advice? TWI officers “ought
to do some research on the company they’re going to, and then they need to think about what they know or don’t know about
industry and industry pro-
cesses, and figure out what they’d like to learn. Create a plan for what they want to accomplish during their tour, based on their past experience and their future job assignment, work that plan out with the industry sponsor and stick with that plan.”
In sum, Hayward said, to achieve the full potential of TWI requires “a willingness to learn; curiosity on how a major manu- facturer accomplishes their goals; and a willingness to stick your nose in and ask questions and realize you’re probably not going to be the smartest guy in the room by far.” In the end, “it’s what you make of it in the areas you’re interested in.”
say, —MS. MARGARET C. ROTH
ASC.ARMY.MIL 147
WORKFORCE
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