A book’s preface should establish context, confirm credibility, acknowledge inspiration, or recognize contributions of others. This preface attempts all four. I hope this preface also adds to the desire of you, worthy reader, to start studying and using this management model.
We need only look at the last 300 years since the First Industrial Revolution to establish context. Since then, the world has been exponentially creating more and more complex machines for every purpose under the sun. With the birth of systems engineering at Bell Labs, circa 1940, we have become better at ensuring these ever-increasingly complex systems do exactly what we need. With complexity comes cost. The costs of replacing these systems keeps us looking for ways to keep the old system working well past the originally-imagined lifetime.
Thus, more and more of us find ourselves working in an organization tasked with keeping an aging complex system alive and useful.
We sustainers come from all areas: engineering, program management, logistics, supply, contracts, statisticians, mechanics, aircraft repair, and many more. We have certifications and degrees. Yet there remains no degree or certification in complex system sustainment.
Consider this book as your first step. It is past time for a book that describes a credible sustainment management model and tells sustainers how to get the most of it.
This book is dedicated to the men and women who, with focus and perseverance, kept our nation’s ICBM deterrent force credible for well over half a century. We owe them gratitude and respect for keeping this nation and our world from stumbling into yet another world war. Faced with a seemingly impossible task, the ICBM sustainers in the civil service, uniformed military, and contractor teams could have decided to give up in their frustration. But they were dedicated to the mission and adversity drove them to become creative.
In order to keep the world’s most complex weapon system reliable and seconds from launch for well over half a century, ICBM sustainers were literally forced to invent modern complex system sustainment. What you are about to read is a concise statement of the sustainment management model created and executed by these individuals.
Some who read this book will not be fans of nuclear deterrence. That’s OK.
You need not be a fan of Bell Labs to benefit from Systems Engineering. And you need not be a fan of Strategic Air Command to benefit from their Complex Systems Sustainment Management Model.
To have confidence in the model describe in this book, you should have a) some understanding of the vast and seemingly endlessly interrelated weapon system it was designed to serve; b) the historic forces that led to the model; and c) the perils the model had to rise above. The next three paragraphs should make you familiar with all three.
ICBMs are scattered across many hundreds of square miles of low population real estate. Each buried silo is essential a sealed vault containing a three-stage missile and guidance system to precisely deliver a nuclear bomb to the other side of the world. The launch site is encased in tons of concrete and steel not only for security but also to protect the President’s option to launch after a first strike from an enemy. The missile silos are unmanned. Command and control comes from remote crew capsules also spread out and buried to ensure survivability. Logistics, supply, and other support is orchestrated across the nation. The design of this modern marvel is pre-modular, so any change to one piece demands a thorough understanding of it all. Any upgrades must be programmed years ahead of time since access is so limited.
In the 1950s and 1960s, ICBMs were developed rapidly. New models emerged every few years with needed features. In the early 1970s, with the fielding of Minuteman III, the design was mature in that few new features needed to be added. The focus became keeping the existing Minutemans working. By the early 1980s, it was becoming apparent that a systematic means of assessing risk and fielded fixes early was essential to keep these complex systems working.
The challenges that shaped the embryonic sustainment management model were a continuous string of parts obsolescence issues, emerging failure modes not dreamed of by the designers, very long lead times to completely field fixes into remote sites, and continuously lowering priority and funding levels. If a sustainment approach can solve these issues, they can solve any sustainment issue.
Success of the complex system sustainment model can be seen today as over 400 1970’s era Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles remain reliably and credibly on alert, moments from launch. If this sustainment management model can do this for the most complex and challenging weapon system ever created, they can certainly help you sustain your system.
The essence of any good management model is practical utility. Can the user keep the model in mind as they go about their day? Can they apply it to their daily decisions? Will it help them focus their work in the most profitable areas?
I encourage you to study the techniques and approaches in this book and determine for yourself just how useful this complex system sustainment management model is.
We need only look at the last 300 years since the First Industrial Revolution to establish context. Since then, the world has been exponentially creating more and more complex machines for every purpose under the sun. With the birth of systems engineering at Bell Labs, circa 1940, we have become better at ensuring these ever-increasingly complex systems do exactly what we need. With complexity comes cost. The costs of replacing these systems keeps us looking for ways to keep the old system working well past the originally-imagined lifetime.
Thus, more and more of us find ourselves working in an organization tasked with keeping an aging complex system alive and useful.
We sustainers come from all areas: engineering, program management, logistics, supply, contracts, statisticians, mechanics, aircraft repair, and many more. We have certifications and degrees. Yet there remains no degree or certification in complex system sustainment.
Consider this book as your first step. It is past time for a book that describes a credible sustainment management model and tells sustainers how to get the most of it.
This book is dedicated to the men and women who, with focus and perseverance, kept our nation’s ICBM deterrent force credible for well over half a century. We owe them gratitude and respect for keeping this nation and our world from stumbling into yet another world war. Faced with a seemingly impossible task, the ICBM sustainers in the civil service, uniformed military, and contractor teams could have decided to give up in their frustration. But they were dedicated to the mission and adversity drove them to become creative.
In order to keep the world’s most complex weapon system reliable and seconds from launch for well over half a century, ICBM sustainers were literally forced to invent modern complex system sustainment. What you are about to read is a concise statement of the sustainment management model created and executed by these individuals.
Some who read this book will not be fans of nuclear deterrence. That’s OK.
You need not be a fan of Bell Labs to benefit from Systems Engineering. And you need not be a fan of Strategic Air Command to benefit from their Complex Systems Sustainment Management Model.
To have confidence in the model describe in this book, you should have a) some understanding of the vast and seemingly endlessly interrelated weapon system it was designed to serve; b) the historic forces that led to the model; and c) the perils the model had to rise above. The next three paragraphs should make you familiar with all three.
ICBMs are scattered across many hundreds of square miles of low population real estate. Each buried silo is essential a sealed vault containing a three-stage missile and guidance system to precisely deliver a nuclear bomb to the other side of the world. The launch site is encased in tons of concrete and steel not only for security but also to protect the President’s option to launch after a first strike from an enemy. The missile silos are unmanned. Command and control comes from remote crew capsules also spread out and buried to ensure survivability. Logistics, supply, and other support is orchestrated across the nation. The design of this modern marvel is pre-modular, so any change to one piece demands a thorough understanding of it all. Any upgrades must be programmed years ahead of time since access is so limited.
In the 1950s and 1960s, ICBMs were developed rapidly. New models emerged every few years with needed features. In the early 1970s, with the fielding of Minuteman III, the design was mature in that few new features needed to be added. The focus became keeping the existing Minutemans working. By the early 1980s, it was becoming apparent that a systematic means of assessing risk and fielded fixes early was essential to keep these complex systems working.
The challenges that shaped the embryonic sustainment management model were a continuous string of parts obsolescence issues, emerging failure modes not dreamed of by the designers, very long lead times to completely field fixes into remote sites, and continuously lowering priority and funding levels. If a sustainment approach can solve these issues, they can solve any sustainment issue.
Success of the complex system sustainment model can be seen today as over 400 1970’s era Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles remain reliably and credibly on alert, moments from launch. If this sustainment management model can do this for the most complex and challenging weapon system ever created, they can certainly help you sustain your system.
The essence of any good management model is practical utility. Can the user keep the model in mind as they go about their day? Can they apply it to their daily decisions? Will it help them focus their work in the most profitable areas?
I encourage you to study the techniques and approaches in this book and determine for yourself just how useful this complex system sustainment management model is.
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