Session ID:

VS2-07

u Advanced

Value Stream Management
Analysis and measure what the problems are based on requirements before you launch into continuous Improvement activity and understand most of the issues are ahead of production

Quality and process excellence is critical to any enterprise. From the contract to the systems engineering through the sustain of the product in the field there can be many issues regarding performance. Too often systems engineer our products and not our processes. We hardly measure the majority of the things we do in terms of quality or cost. Northrop Grumman are in the infancy of moving to this new realization and seek to deploy the tools of Lean and Six Sigma throughout the entire enterprise process (from Product Definition through Field Service) to achieve the following objectives:  provide customer satisfaction through process quality; remove non-value added work and make the processes flow; and improve bottom line performance.  This is Northrop Grumman's journey.

Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector, headquartered in El Segundo, California, is a premier aerospace systems integration enterprise. IS has the capabilities to design, develop, integrate, produce and support complete systems, as well as airframe subsystems, for airborne surveillance and battle management aircraft, early warning aircraft, airborne electronic warfare aircraft, air combat aircraft and unmanned systems.

Christopher Cool, Vice President – Quality Systems and Safety

Christopher Cool is Vice President - Sector Affordability and also the Quality Systems and Safety Vice President for the Western Region of Northrop Grumman’s Integrated Systems sector. Previously, Mr. Cool was Vice President – Manufacturing Quality and Lean for the Integrated Systems Sector. In addition, he is a founding member and past chair of the corporate Enterprise Excellence council and the Corporate Quality council.

Joining Northrop Grumman in 1985 as industrial engineering manager for B-2 final assembly, Mr. Cool was named division industrial engineering manager in 1988. In 1991, he was promoted to manage all Operations support functions for B-2 final assembly following six months at the Defense Systems Management College on Program Management. He was named director of the B-2 division's strategic planning in 1995 and continued in that role the following year when Northrop Grumman's B-2 and Military Aircraft divisions were consolidated into the Military Aircraft Systems Division. In 1997, Mr. Cool moved to the Commercial Aircraft Division as director of division integration and program management. He was promoted to the VP of Manufacturing, Quality and Lean for the Aero structures business unit in 1998 and was made the Integrated Systems sectors VP for the same job in 2000.

Mr. Cool received a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering from Stanford University in 1979 and a master's degree in business administration from UCLA in 1995. Prior to college he was educated in India and Nepal for all his primary and secondary education and has traveled extensively throughout South East Asia. However, his true education continuously comes from being the parent of two wonderful children - Katie and Cameron.