Lockheed Martin: Technology Assessment
Introduction
The International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing reports that aligning technology resources and business objectives is essential to maintaining business value (Cuenca, 2011). “Successful alignment between business and IT strategy is evidence where both IT and business strategy can demonstrate a planned alliance which then leads to tangible, successful, business-focused outcomes (Jovita & Graeme, 2007).” Presently, Lockheed Martin has effectively aligned its technology resources with its business objectives.
Organizational Structure Lockheed Martin’s mission is to “solve complex challenges, advance scientific discovery and deliver innovative solutions to help [its] customers
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For instance, Space uses an electron beam additive manufacturing technology, which is a metal 3D printing solution. Additive manufacturing technology has “reduced cost by 55%, material waste by 75% and production time by 80%...over traditional forging methods (2017).” In addition, the “Digital Tapestry” technology not only streamlines the manufacturing process, it also produces stronger structures (Nathan, 2015). Similarly, the Space division uses robots to scour airships for pinholes, which significantly reduces both production and repair timeframes (Warwick, 2016). With Digital Tapestry technology and robots, the organization achieved its objective to make products more cost-effective by improving product quality, reducing waste, and increasing manufacturing …show more content…
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Lockheed Martin Announces BlackCloud™ Solution Based On Trusted Infrastructure Technologies From Cyber Security Alliance Partners. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14, 2018, from https://www.netapp.com/us/company/news/press-releases/news-rel-20110615-88440.aspx
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Metal 3D Printing Solution Reduced Lockheed Martin's Production Time by 80% and Costs by 55%. (2017). MAN: Modern Applications News, 11(18), 1.
NASA and Lockheed Martin use @RISK for Planning First Manned Mission to Mars. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14, 2018, from http://www.palisade.com/cases/LockheedMartinNASA.asp
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The Balanced Scorecard is a business strategic planning system used by management to make decisions based on information provided about the business from four different perspectives. The first of the four perspectives is the financial perspective. Which means that we evaluate our business and conduct research from the shareholders perspective. Next is the internal business perspective, which is an internal evaluation of what the business must be good at to excel. Next is the innovation and learning perspective which is an evaluation of the firm’s ability to continue to improve and create value. The final perspective is the customer perspective, which is looking at the business activities from the customers
At the July Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Conference, LTG Ostrowski, the Army Acquisition Executive Lead, conveyed the Army’s need for future network solutions. It was also shared in the FY16 Presidential Budget that the Army has several budget requests for Communications systems and upgrades totally over $1.2B (Keller, J. , 2015). This is an opportunity for the Comms BU to expand its customer base in the U.S. Army market place. Northrop Grumman was ranked in the Top 5 of Aerospace and Defense Companies in Forbes America’s Best Employers list (2017). They were ranked over larger companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Their commitment to their employees, diversity, their customer and even the environment drives their culture. Northrop Grumman’s competitive advantage is leveraging the technology already developed and tested for the services (Air Force and Navy). Their experience with the Army is via services work where our people have gained the expertise to be the right people for working with the Missile Defense Agency. After analyzing both the internal and external environment of Northrop, their competitors and the analysis of their financial position, Northrop has developed a sustainable competitive advantage. They have done this through the use of product differentiation. The value they receive, the knowledge they gain and patents they own by acquiring other companies expands their portfolio to offer products and services not comparable to their competitors. Their respective strategic position establishes a value to their customers that is differentiated amongst their competitors, allowing them to offer a higher premium for their products and
Lockheed Martin is an organization that heavily relies on its defense contracts in order to generate revenue. In 2005, 95% of Lockheed Martin’s revenue came from the US Department of Defense, other US Federal government agencies and foreign military customers (Defense News, 2007). Lockheed Martin earns this revenue by winning government contracts. As previously noted, Lockheed Martin has a large customer base with the US Department of Defense. The company is the largest provider of IT services, systems integration, and training to the government (Lockheed Martin, 2008). Other customers that provide revenue for Lockheed Martin are international governments and some commercial sales of products and services (Lockheed Martin, 2008).
The goal of this paper is to provide key insights and concepts from three strategy books and then begin the strategy planning process for five different products. The three books shy away from advocating old school Porter’s concepts and instead recommend strategic innovation since modern market environments are dynamic. In Book 1, "Thinkers 50 Strategy," Crainer and Dearlove (2014) discuss the evolution of strategy concepts from early military strategists (Sun Tzu) to more recent influential works such as Michael Porter’s ‘Five Forces’, Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad’s resource-based ‘Harmonic Strategy’, Richard D’Aveni’s new 7-S framework for hypercompetition, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne’s ‘Value Innovation’ and ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’, David P. Baron’s ‘Integrated Strategy’ that includes nonmarket strategy and Pankaj Ghemawat’s ‘World 3.0’ for global strategy. Rita McGrath underscores the need for newer strategy techniques: “Today we’re seeing industries competing with industries, different arenas where competition manifests itself. Strategy, entrepreneurship, and innovation are all bleeding into each other” (cited in Crainer and Dearlove, 2014, chapter 1, last para.).
IBM System Journal. "Strategic Alignment: Leveraging Information Technology for Transforming Organizations." Last accessed April 14, 2007. http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/journal/sj/382/henderson.pdf
The second issue is new product designs. Applied Materials can control the cost altogether by importing lower cost materials from overseas, shifting its R&D departments to lower cost countries, and hiring offices overseas in India, China, or Japan. As Porter states in his paper, a company can only gain advantage over other companies by keeping its costs low and keeping its products unique. To keep the products unique, Applied Materials can also increase their R&D investments to develop more innovative new products. This will lead to continued success of the company. In 2015, the company introduced its 2018 financial model that forecasted global wafer equipment spending in the $33.5 billion range. One of the main challenges Applied Materials faces is creating innovative products that are compatible with the latest technology; this is why it is important for Applied Materials to increase the cost of R&D. Because Applied Materials is in an industry that is always changing, it is necessary to look beyond existing possibilities and continue exploring better possibilities for their firm. The amount Applied Materials will save from importing from overseas or from cheaper labor overseas can be used to invest towards the R&D for everlasting unique
Information Technology (IT) is a foundation for conducting business today. It plays a critical role in increasing productivity of firms and entire nation. It is proven that firms who invested in IT have experienced continued growth in productivity and efficiency. Many companies' survival and even existence without use of IT is unimaginable. IT has become the largest component of capital investment for companies in the United States and many other countries.
IBM compares its competitor’s processes; organization and technology against an integrated end-to-end, business model to identify gaps and opportunities.IBM use a prioritization tool to create a strategic transformation blueprint that highlight projects with the greatest potential return on
Henderson and Venkatraman proposed a model for business – IT alignment; it was intended to support the integration of information technology (IT) into business strategy by advocating alignment between and within four domains (see figure 1). The inter-domain alignment is pursued along two dimensions: strategic fit (between the external and internal domain) and functional integration (between the business domain and the IT domain). The objective of this model was to provide a way to align information technology with business objectives in order to realise value from IT investments. The authors argued that the potential strategic impact of information technology requires both an understanding of the critical components of IT strategy and its role in supporting and shaping business strategy decisions and a process of continuous adaptation and change. Hence, they presented a model that defines the range of strategic choices facing managers.
Information systems (IS) projects are vulnerable to resource cutbacks and the increasing complexity of systems and advances in information technology make finding the right personnel difficult and the associated development costs high. Good project management is essential for success. Some alignment methodologies include IBM's business systems planning (BSP), Robert Holland's strategic systems planning, James Martin's (1989) information engineering and method/1 from Anderson Consulting.
One main apprehension that they have against Information System is the high investment cost. In addition to this there is the high maintenance and upgrade costs associated with the deployment of new IT systems. In fact they prefer to outsource the heavy IT department expenditures to other companies having IT as their core activities. In return they expected to receive a full solution pack to meet their requirements and they are ready to pay these IT services as an operating cost. At the same time the risks associated with IS are being shifted to the other
Perry, B., 2005, Organisational Management and Information Systems. [e-book] Oxford; Elsevier. Available at: Google Books . [Accessed 14 November 2013]
Advances in technology have changed businesses dramatically, in particular the communication and information technology that are conducted in firms, which changed the appearance and pace of businesses over the past few decades. ICT in particular, has evolved a lot over the past 30 years; important information can be stored in computers rather than being in drawers enabling information to be transferred at a greater volume and speed (Guy, 2009). ICT has also expanded various forms of telecommunications and workload conducted in businesses, internet examples of this include: e-mails can be used to communicate with others...
Organizations and individuals have to strategically position themselves in order to take advantage of the growing technology and achieve business competitive advantage while at it (DeHaven 2010 pg 1). Technology has enabled globalization; where ideas, products and services have been shared. This has promoted foreign businesses thus helping different economies all across the globe. Different organizations and individuals have realized that technology will keep growing and changing and the best strategy will be to adapt it other than holding to rigid ways of doin...