National Harbor, MD. John Johns, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Maintenance), delivered a keynote speech at Autotestcon this morning. “We face a full spectrum of threats, from individual terrorists to states armed with conventional and nuclear weapons,” he said, in an address whose opening moments were punctuated by false alarms. Unfortunately, the threats we face are all too often real, and consequently, “We need advanced systems that can operate in harsh environments and that we can build and maintain with limited resources.”
He called for commitments to true innovation, collaboration, and leadership. Specifically, we spend $2 billion annually on removing and processing subsystems with “no fault found”—“Let’s cut that in half in five years,” he said. Further, “We spend $25 billion on electronic system maintenance. Let’s reduce our baseline by 25% in ten years.”
Johns, who oversees the DoD’s $80 billion military equipment and weapons maintenance program, emphasized, “Let’s make the commitment now to liberate our thinking, modify programs, change processes, and field the necessary equipment at no additional development cost. I know we know it is possible.” Success will require confidence, collaboration, innovation, and leadership, he added.
He said we are sending increasingly skilled people to war in remote parts of the world. “This is the context in which we operate. Given this reality, overcoming the challenges will not be easy.” Exceptional confidence and sincere collaboration are required to ensure mission and campaign success, he said. Participants in the mission can lead or follow but will not be able to get out of the way; all will need new levels of flexibility and agility to provide advanced tools for advanced weapons. “This is our space—those that generate and apply readiness are depending on us.”
Johns led U.S. Naval Aviation Intermediate and Depot Maintenance where he was responsible for a workforce of 16,000 military and civilian personnel and the annual maintenance and repair of over 700 aircraft, 5,000 engines and modules, and 500,000 components, so he understands the complexity of the challenges at hand. He said, “We must embrace powerful goals that drive integration, cost reduction, and performance improvements. We require leaders to apply new methods; we need leaders at all levels that have no tolerance for status quo or mediocrity.”
He said our leaders will need to unleash waves of innovation, which has no predetermined allegiance; it belongs to those who understand their business. “Innovation is perishable,” he said. “It must be nourished, recognized, and rewarded until it becomes part of our culture.” That’s not to denigrate tradition, he added—there’s power in tradition, but it must involve a culture of innovation.
“Fortune favors the bold,” he said. “Those who seek a new future must be fearless in pursuing it. This is our duty: to produce results required by our military to fight on any battlefield any time.” However, he said, boldness alone is not enough contribute to greater good. That requires flexible skills and a shared common view of success.
He also advised that attendees must understand that collaboration is not consensus. True innovative game-changing technology does not always arise from the committee room. Just because we can see need for collaboration, we cannot wish it into being. In the science of collaboration, we should all be experts.
Also, he said, it is time for collaboration based on respect for expertise in art as well as science, with an emphasis on principles and covenants—not just contracts. “We must be not just practitioners but experts and evangelists,” he said, adding that “…BS 11000 advances our understanding of true collaboration.”
He continued saying science is necessary but not sufficient. We need artists to apply the principles of science to move beyond the view of simply canvas and paint. The artist can help differentiate common from uncommon. More than one person can apply paint to canvass at the same time, he said, but in the end, the painting must look as if only one person held the brush.
We must carefully and ruthlessly choose leaders, Johns said, to nurture and protect innovation and enable true collaboration. We must be relentless in pursuit of excellence. “You in this room represent the greatest industrial capability in the world. You build the machines that let us dominate air, land, and sea—the arsenal of freedom and liberty.”
Leadership, he concluded, does not require the word manager, director, commander, or president in your title—leadership is the domain of all.
In a question-and-answer session following the keynote, Johns was asked whether he had data on whether his opening proposals (cutting “no fault found” costs and total costs related to electronics system maintenance) were achievable. He said, “No, but I believe they are achievable.” Pursue them aggressively, he recommended, and you get wherever you get. It’s a noble goal to reduce by half the no-fault-found number. “If you don’t get to either one of these goals,” he said, “at least you try, and maybe over the next five or ten years you do better.”
He was also asked how attendees could help get his message across to other constituencies. “You must get people’s attention,” he said. “Communicate in language that gets their attention. Emphasize cost, performance, and readiness. Be vigilant and aggressive. Your target is the requirement phase. If you miss requirements you are playing catchup throughout the life cycle.”
He further stated, “If you don’t have an opinion or can’t articulate it, we don’t need you. Communicate in a way people are going to listen and understand. But you need a venue—a seat at the table. It all goes back to same thing: competence, collaboration, and leadership are the key ingredients to make happen what needs to happen, whatever field you are in. Be aggressive.”
Speaking of Autotestcon and similar events, he said, “These kind of venues are some of the most effective ways to do that—that’s why I’m here.”
Before Johns’ presentation, Bob Rassa, Autotestcon general chair, welcomed attendees, noting that the event was convening in the Washington, DC, area for the first time since 1984. He emphasized that Frank Kendall, Under Secretary of Defense, Acquisition Technology & Logistics, had issued a guidance memorandum to all DoD departments and agencies on February 20, 2014, urging DoD commands to facilitate participation in events like Autotestcon, following up with a further clarification on September 23 of this year. (See related article.)
Rassa said attendees can share their ideas with their industrial counterparts, building on the collaboration that has allowed the United States to project the greatest military might in the world. “The only to continue that is to keep up that partnership,” he concluded.
