Long term org memory LO7889

myersk@lfs.loral.com
Fri, 14 Jun 1996 14:38:41 -0400

Replying to LO7845 --

I accept that a trickle of activity is needed to maintain a community of
practice, but which trickle, and which COP? Are COPs resilient when
powered down for the long term? The comments so far are equivocal.
So here's a gedanken. Are we really going to sustain the sub-building COP
by building one whole submarine? Maybe, but I'm not convinced that
cheaper alternatives won't do just as well, or even better. Here are
some.

1. If it is only welding knowledge that is hard to recapture, then give the
welders a 20-year contract to run a Titanium Sculpture Workshop. They could
train, sell products, charge admission.

2. If it is necessary to build a whole hull with many of the project
management trimmings, then build a 1/25 scale sub and sell it to Sea World.

3. If it is necessary to have a huge project, build a hull, deal with
nuclear propulsion and weapons, and involve the whole Navy, then dismantle
an old sub, bash holes in it, and put it back together.

4. The construction team doesn't need to be well-oiled. Military construction
is famously inefficient, and not because the workers lack knowledge. Spend
$1B on an exercise to build a government management COP. Contractors can be
hired to torment management and make simulated late deliveries.

5. A COP gets good through repetition of cycles. Therefore a single real
cycle is the wrong kind of trickle. Several incomplete subs should be built,
and many parts can be reused.

6. If workers were selected who could understand and agree with the purpose
of alternatives like these, I don't think they would find the work futile.
They might shift to a more R&D orientation and increase knowledge that will
be useful rather than maintain obsolete knowledge.

My offhand opinion, not knowing anything about it:
I think #5 and #6 would do the job better and cheaper than building the sub.
#1 might fail because the COP is probably bigger. #2 would fail because it
lacks dignity. #3 is slow and involves too much extraneous work. #4 actually
has merit but would require too much imagination.

Kent Myers myersk@lfs.loral.com

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myersk@lfs.loral.com

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