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JSF Employment Could Peak at More Than 6,000
While two teams await word about the award
of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) contract, leaders at the competing
companies have a common concern: how to add new staff effectively
should their company win the contract.
Tom Burbage, executive vice president/general
manager for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co.’s JSF team, said, "It
is the kind of challenge you like to have. It is a chance to revitalize
your workforce, to open up new opportunities and attract all-new
talent."
However, just as important as marketing the
employment opportunities is the manner in which people join the
team. Burbage calls this the "on-boarding process," a critical opportunity
to set the personality and tempo of the team. The Lockheed Martin
Aeronautics Co. approach is to offer a four-week training process
to bring on new team members, followed by more-specific, two-week
training periods.
Timing is everything, according to Burbage.
"You cannot afford to staff at a high rate until the contract is
awarded." For now, each of the prime development teams has approximately
500 employees--people who have shifted from other programs or joined
the company to fill entirely new positions. With the culmination
of flight demonstrations, some employees have moved on to new assignments.
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| Winning the Joint Strike Fighter contract,
which is scheduled to be awarded by year-end, would boost employment
substantially at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. |
Once the contract is awarded, however, integrated
product team leaders will move into place, and more than 60 new employees
will sign on every week for the next year. Peak hiring for the primes
will involve adding about 4,500 workers, with team partners bringing
on an additional 1,000-2,000 employees each.
Peter Shaw, leader of the Northrop Grumman
Air Combat Systems portion of the Lockheed Martin JSF team, said
a contract win would allow his team of 60 to swell to as many as
1,500. Some of the hiring will be to "backfill" positions vacated
by experienced employees transferred to the JSF project.
Northrop Grumman learned the value of retraining
individuals two years ago when it applied the practice to its production
employees. Shaw said retraining would be provided to engineers,
varying by discipline and tailored to JSF’s new tools and processes.
Burbage said Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co.
has set a goal of getting 40% of its new hires from college and
university campuses.
Today’s graduates "are trained a lot differently
than we were," Burbage pointed out. "They are much more general
practitioners instead of specialists. Our operations were set up
in the past so that you were assigned to be, say, a stress engineer.
You worked in that little box. Because today’s graduates have much
broader computer skills, they have the capability to do a variety
of tasks that in the past might have involved two to three people."
The JSF program also presents an opportunity
to implement new business methods. Burbage said in the case of Lockheed
Martin, it would initially involve more responsibility for systems
engineers. Once the aircraft’s systems and requirements are fully
defined, specialty engineering disciplines will be applied. In addition,
he believes much more "virtual" work will be involved--individual
contributors linked via satellite to locations.
"Aerospace used to be a very nomadic industry,
with people following new opportunities," Burbage said. "People
do not like to move anymore. We are fortunate to have the tools
needed for people to work from remote sites. I foresee a roomful
of people sitting in Marietta [Ga.], each working on different integrated
product teams here in Fort Worth.
"We have a poster that says JSF is another
legend in the making--it is an opportunity to work on a really exciting,
very advanced technology airplane. It is a unique situation, no
matter which team wins," Burbage concluded.
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