2014 Program Excellence Award
The Aviation Week Program Excellence Award initiative was developed in 2004 in recognition of the need
to develop future program leaders who in addition to facing challenges similar to those of the past, will
also have to deal with increasing technical, organizational and business complexities. This effort has
resulted in improvements in several key areas, but execution challenges remain. Concurrently, the
Department of Defense and NASA have expanded focus on professional development for strategic
program leaders. This award process is designed to identify best practices in areas of needed
improvement and to celebrate performance accomplishments.
The goal of this initiative is to recognize and promote program excellence in terms of performance,
leadership capability, and outstanding lessons that can and will be shared broadly within the aerospace
and defense community. By taking part in the submission process, nominees agree to be part of this
program to share information.
Framework
The criteria for this award are based on the best elements of program/project leadership excellence
programs developed by the Strategic Project Leadership Program of the Technological Leadership
Institute, the NIST Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards, and the NASA/USRA Center for
Program/Project Management Research.
The award will examine four critical areas according to the following framework:
For 2014, the evaluation will also include focus within these four categories on utilization of earned value
as a more agile/responsive tool; further risk/issue/opportunity management processes to assure teams
address risk and capitalize upon opportunity; understanding of integrating export opportunity into program
operation; and innovation in business models, processes, teaming approaches and overall execution. The
Evaluation Team will determine finalists and winners on the basis of scores in these four categories. The
winner(s) will be featured in Aviation Week & Space Technology and at www.AviationWeek.com, as well
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as honored at the annual Aviation Week Aerospace & Defense Programs Conference to be held
November 19-20 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Entries will be evaluated on the basis of performance for the previous 36 months.
Nominations are encouraged from commercial aerospace, space (commercial and defense), defense and
security sectors and should be made in one category only:
 Sub-System R&D/SDD
 Sub-System Production
 Sub-System Sustainment
 System R&D/SDD
 System Production
 System Sustainment
 Special Projects
In each category and based on meeting a threshold score to be determined by the Evaluation Team,
finalists will be chosen on the basis of scoring on Phase 1 and Phase 2 entries and analysis by the
Evaluation Team. Aviation Week retains the final responsibility for selection.
The Evaluation Team reserves the right to choose no winners and to name an Overall Winner, if the
nominations so warrant, based on the combination of scoring against the criteria, best practices, and
game-changing leadership.
2014 Evaluation Team
The Evaluation Team for the 2014 Aviation Week Program Excellence Awards includes:
Michael Bruno, Deputy Managing Editor-Military, Aviation Week
Jean Chamberlin, VP Program Management, Boeing Defense, Space & Security
Ed Hoffman, Chief Knowledge Officer, NASA
Ron Morey, Sr. Director Fixed Wing Solutions, Rockwell Collins
Warren Nechtman, VP Program Management & Business Operations, Honeywell Aerospace
Detra Sarris, Corporate Director of Programs, Northrop Grumman Corp.
Aaron Shenhar, Founder, Strategic Project Leadership
Jesse Stewart, Professor of Program Management, Defense Acquisition University
Jeffrey J. Wilcox, VP Engineering, Lockheed Martin Corp.
Intellectual Property
Note: Individuals outside your company review award submissions. All information submitted should address the
program’s management, leadership, and processes, and not any otherwise classified or proprietary topic. Do not
include any materials marked Proprietary. All documents will be copied and distributed via the Internet to the
aforementioned Evaluation Team and will be considered as public knowledge.
By submitting an entry to the Aviation Week Program Excellence Awards program, you are indicating agreement
to participate in outreach efforts to share Lessons Learned/Best Practices in an effort to raise the bar on program
leadership across the industry. Entries may be also used for comparative research among programs to draw
conclusions and lessons learned across the industry.
Format of Submission
The Program Excellence Awards process involves two phases of evaluation.
Phase 1 – Nominees submit, in narrative format, their perspective on why the program excels and identify the
teachable lessons in program execution within the past 36 months (beginning January 2011). The focus in this
narrative should be how the program has successfully addressed challenging issues or met seemingly difficult
requirements. Note that while the technology involved is an aspect of complexity, the technology itself is not being
evaluated – the leadership and execution of the program are being evaluated.
Limit this narrative to four pages, 12 point Times Roman typeface with 1” margins.
 Include with the narrative a one-page biography of the program leader, including what sets this individual
apart as a leader.
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
Identify by name a representative of the program customer, and include phone and email information.
Customers will be asked for go/no go decision regarding consideration of this program for the Aviation
Week Program Excellence Award.
 Phase 1 is due April 1, 2014 to chedden1@cox.net / carole.hedden@aviationweek.com
You must use the tabular format provided to submit your nomination form. You should use 12 pt. Times Roman
font to fill in the tables. Submit your document as a PDF file.
Upon completion of Phase 1, narratives will be reviewed for “fit for excellence” and qualified nominees will
then be provided with the Phase 2 submission form by no later than April 21. The Phase 2 forms will be due
June 30, 2014. Finalists and best practices will be identified by no later than September 7.
Submission and Questions
Questions and submissions should be directed to
Carole Rickard Hedden
Project Leader, Aviation Week Program Excellence Initiative
chedden1@cox.net / carole.hedden@aviationweek.com
505.239.9520
Phase I Submission
Name of Program: Bell Helicopter 525 Relentless Program (System R&D/SDD Category)
Name of Program Leader: Larry Thimmesch
Phone Number: (817) 280-2260
Email: lthimmesch@bh.com
Postage Address: P.O. Box 482 Fort Worth, TX 76101
Name of Customer Representative: Susan Gordon
Phone Number: (817) 280-3726
Email: sgordon@bh.com
Bio for program leader:
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Larry Thimmesch is employed by Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. as Vice President of Commercial
Programs. His current focus is bringing the Bell 525 Relentless to market, officially launched in
February 2012. Prior to joining Bell Helicopter in 2010, Thimmesch was employed by Bombardier
Learjet as Program Director for numerous Learjet aircraft programs, including the Learjet 60XR,
the Learjet 85 and other in-production programs, and was also a member of the Learjet Leadership
Team.
He was also responsible for the successful entry-into-service phase of the Challenger 300 aircraft
as the EIS Program Manager and held previous leadership positions within the Learjet Customer
Support Organization. Before joining Learjet, Thimmesch worked at Boeing within Systems,
Structures and Service Engineering departments and had involvement in numerous commercial
and military programs.
Larry brings a strong customer focused mindset, believing that the close collaboration between the
customer base and the integrated product development team is the best opportunity to assure future
market success. In this vein, he has afforded many members of the development team to spend a
“day in the life” of the customer to truly understand how the customer use the products today,
what is working and what technology can bring additional advantage in terms of safety, reliability
and operating economics. This is one way he is able to bring a level of passion and external focus
to his teams that is necessary to sustain a high level of performance, while meeting very aggressive
business and product performance goals.
He is also a huge advocate of cross-functional collaboration within the product development team,
combining all technical disciplines and functions at the earliest onset of the program to assure
learning is as concurrent as possible and eliminate reiteration and serial learning through
development. Thimmesch has assured all measures of product development progress are defined
by the customer base and focused on applying relevant technology to provide the best and safest
solution in the market at the lowest possible cost of operational ownership. He has been
instrumental in driving a paradigm change at Bell Helicopter towards a more customer-focused
systemic capability, focused on becoming the supplier of choice in the global commercial
helicopter market by providing the next level of product safety and capability in the industry.
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Phase I Program Narrative – 1
The Bell 525 Relentless program represents a major change in how Bell Helicopter approached
the new product development process. From day one, the goal was to involve the voice of the
customer to create a game-changing product capable of meeting the future needs of the rotorcraft
market. The ultimate goal was to design and deliver a safe, high quality product quickly, while
still ensuring it comprehensively met or exceeded all customer requirements.
Bell Helicopter realized there were many new integrated design technologies that could provide
next generation of standards for safety, productivity and overall economic life cycle viability.
For example, the fly-by-wire controls that had been proven in Bell Helicopter’s military products
for more than 25 years were adapted for commercial use for the first time. This capability helps
take the rotorcraft market to the same operation levels currently only seen in the mature fixed
wing commercial transport sector. The Bell 525 Relentless program also worked to reduce
vibration by targeting rotating components via Bell designed LIVE© units, elastomeric mounted
gearboxes, engines, and the Environmental Control Unit. The platform was also equipped with
the latest in Vehicle Health Monitoring to assure safe and proactive maintenance capabilities
throughout the aircraft’s full lifecycle.
The cost of a clean sheet, commercially-certified aircraft has become a very expensive
proposition. This makes it even more imperative to get it right the first time and avoid heavy
design iteration late in the program. It also means assuring the product aligns to current
manufacturing capabilities and meets the key needs of customers from the onset. A new
development program is viewed as an intense technical learning journey and the intent is to learn
as fast as possible in the process while minimizing the impact to the cost and schedule.
The meet this objective, the 525 Program defined cross-functional integrated product
development teams (IPTs), allocating levels of design, recurring and non-recurring cost,
schedule and weight content. The program then managed each IPT as a separate business unit,
providing timely and relevant data while closely managing scope change, interfaces and the flow
down of requirements through a very rigorous spiral process. The main objective was to manage
concise requirements and technical interfaces, assuring everything earned its way onto the
platform, by contributing to the critical key performance parameters set forth by the program.
The teams each consisted of an IPT Leader whose role is best defined as a general manager
leading Design, Analysis and Test Engineers, Customer Support specialists, an A&P mechanic,
Strategic Procurement Specialists, Program Cost Control specialists, Quality Specialists, and
Manufacturing Engineers. The team members defined all requirements very early in the process
to assure all aspects of the design needs were understood from the start thus minimizing the
cycle of discovery through downstream consumption of the design data.
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Another game-changing aspect of the program was the establishment of a global, multi-market
segment customer advisory panel (CAP) whose role was to define all levels of Key Value
Parameters (KVPs) needed for the final product. The group started with primary payload and
performance requirements and continually worked in a spiral approach through all lower level
requirements. As the requirements were defined by the CAP, the IPT took this data back and
analyzed the design trade-offs to arrive at the best-fit design solution, which was then brought
back to the CAP for validation before proceeding. In essence, the CAP designed the aircraft in
its entirety throughout this spiral process, receiving the same data the team worked with to arrive
at the best overall design solutions for the purpose it was intended in the market.
The program also identified a list of dramatically fewer suppliers than used on past programs,
only selecting those that had a unique and required technical or manufacturing capability that
would expand the solution set. These suppliers were signed up with collaboration agreements
very early on to help define requirements based on the same customer data. These arrangements
eventually morphed into commercial terms as the Statement of Work (SOW) was solidified.
Many of the critical suppliers were brought onsite during the pre-design phase and treated as
members of the IPT with seats next to the design engineers. They provided invaluable analysis
of the designs and made certain the program was assured a low-cost, high-quality, repeatable
product.
The 525 Program proactively drove quality into the design by identifying components from
previous products with a recurring history of manufacturing or design issues. This list included
previous challenges such as door leaks, cowl panel fit and finish and complex composite lay-ups.
Once identified, the parts were run through a rigorous DFMEA (Design Failure Mode Element
Analysis) process to improve their yield and design aspects that were previously troubling. Key
characteristics were identified to drive improvement to the issues and addressing them will
require additional quality activity during fabrication.
Bell Helicopter was also the first OEM to use a new design toolset uniquely suited to this
concurrent, highly-integrated methodology. The 525 program needed the capability to load all
requirements into the design environment early, providing concurrent definition through the
design, build and support process. Using both CATIA V6 and ENOVIA allowed the program to
load all the requirements into the design environment at the beginning of the program, including:
performance, weight, manufacturing, cost, operational support and maintenance access and test.
As the designers evolved the configuration, the team was assured the design not only met all
intents but did not exceed the requirements or provide more than was defined. Requirements
were initially developed at a high level, directly derived from the Program KVPs. However, as
the design matured through pre-design and detail design, the requirements were dissected to very
specific tier 2 or tier 3 requirements that were system specific, and many times, sub-assembly
specific. The requirements were physically linked to the configuration item in ENOVIA, so the
designer always understood the requirements as they applied to the design.
Phase I Program Narrative – 2
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Phase I Program Narrative - 3
The team was also able to define the configuration as it was to be manufactured, thus eliminating
the need for synthetic manufacturing assembly numbers. In short, the Engineering Bill of
Materials (EBOM) 100% matches the Manufacturing Bill of Materials (MBOM). This allowed
the design engineer to fully understand where in the build process each designed or procured
component would be installed and functionally tested, assuring full capabilities to meet those
requirements. Features such as pilot holes and paint or primer masking that were previously
instituted by manufacturing planning are now included directly in the engineering. The new
toolsets also allowed the A&P mechanics to use virtual design and ergonomic tools to validate
maintenance and accessibility requirements long before design release occurred.
By using one source of design data for configuration, build and maintenance support, the team is
able to iterate change to the configuration with complete connectivity through the entire build
and life cycle of the aircraft. In its digital definition, it also allows the use of virtual
manufacturing work instructions, which have validated the tool and the installation process many
times before the tool or part were ever built. In several cases, changes were made to tool
definitions through this virtual learning before the tool was manufactured, resulting in a very
mature build state for the first aircraft.
This high level of component fit coupled with a very mature manufacturing technician
knowledge and capability are unprecedented from past legacy programs. The new toolset also
allows the technical publication team to develop virtual maintenance manuals, while allowing
the customer to use the virtual capability as both a comprehensive maintenance manual and as an
embedded training aid. These maintenance instructions are built directly from the existing digital
dataset, complete with maintenance action animations describing exactly how to remove/reinstall/assemble components.
The clear benefit of these new digital tools is they havereplicated the concept of a highlyintegrated team, managed via a highly-structured requirements process within a digital toolset.
This fully allows the IPT to act as one cohesive, concurrent unit, as it was intended. Serial
processes were eliminated were possible since the digital world allows tooling, manufacturing,
and technical publications to stay in lockstep with the design engineer maturing these products
alongside the actual design in real time. The benefits of this are a clear reduction of functional
“silos”, an enhanced team culture and a huge reduction in time to market.
As the first prototype production units are being assembled, the level of first pass part quality
and design maturity that is being realized has far exceeded past program first start capabilities.
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Phase I Program Narrative - 4
The collaborative processes and ability of the design and manufacturing teams to use new
technology and processes has created a new benchmark for how all future aircraft at Bell
Helicopter will be designed, while also assuring Bell is building the right product at the right
time in support of our overall customer and market requirements.
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