Project Background: PDSS is in its second year of working with the U.S. Army's Armament Research, Development & Engineering Center (ARDEC) at the Picatinny Arsenal in Northern New Jersey. One of the three initiatives PDSS is helping the ARDEC develop and deploy is a state-of-the-art Collaborative Innovation Framework (CIF). Initially, ARDEC asked PDSS to help them define and develop a new innovation process. One of the first steps of the project was stakeholder interviews to gather requirements. As PDSS guided ARDEC through the interviews with the stakeholders, it became apparent that more than just a new innovation process was needed. As a result, the ARDEC team expanded the project scope to define and develop a framework that incorporated the new innovation process, and went beyond to encompass the importance of collaboration across the entire ARDEC. The initiative was named the Collaborative Innovation Framework (CIF).
Benchmarking "Outside the Box"
Another step in the CIF development was benchmarking. The ARDEC team travelled with PDSS to benchmark the best practices of innovation and technology development at large corporations with similarities to ARDEC, such as Cummins, Boeing and 3M, each of which has also been a client of PDSS. These companies are well-known for their cultures of innovation and the technical complexity of their products. While benchmarking similar companies and industries to glean best practices and new ideas for your own organization is appropriate, it's also a good idea to benchmark "outside the box", and look at dissimilar organizations for inspiration and creative application of ideas. It was with that in mind that the ARDEC team and PDSS reached out to Orange County Choppers (OCC), custom motorcycle builders in Newburgh, NY. An invitation to the ARDEC team was extended by Jim Quinn, OCC's Lead Engineer, and the team drove up to visit one afternoon in late August.
Why Benchmark OCC?
ARDEC's decision to benchmark OCC qualifies as "outside-the box" because OCC is a) small, with approximately 45 employees, compared to ARDEC's approximately 3,000 employees, b) entrepreneurial, rather than corporate or governmental and c) their products are custom-built and are one-of-a-kind. One strong similarity, however, is OCC's paradigm of building unique motorcycles start-to-finish in a 3-week period. This rapid "cycle" time (no pun intended!) is also a priority at ARDEC, where they must conceive, develop and field new counter-terrorism technologies in less than 90 days for our war fighters in Afghanistan and Iraq.
OCC of TV's "American Chopper"
OCC has evolved from a garage shop hobby by Paul Tuettel (Paul Sr.) and his son, Paul Jr. Readers may be familiar with OCC by way of their TV show called "American Chopper" on TV network's The Learning Channel (TLC). Each episode highlights the dynamics of how they create new designs for one-of-a-kind motorcycles in the style of "choppers", and features father and son antics and arguments during the creation of some of the most beautiful custom motorcycles on the market today. Behind the drama, however, there is a serious and successful business.
The ARDEC Team Visits OCC
PDSS' President Skip Creveling, the ARDEC CIF Team, numerous technical specialists and two Officers from ARDEC's Program Executive Office (PEO) attended the tour and Q&A session, hosted by OCC's Jim Quinn. When asked what was behind their creativity and innovation, Jim's answer was simple, "It's the people and how they work together."
While OCC has numerous technical tools and gadgets to aid their creativity, such as state-of-the-art rapid prototyping equipment and CNC machines, a major discovery from the visit was not technical, but human in nature. The magic behind OCC's innovation is in the relationships and teaming skills that this particular group of individuals shares. They are all in proximity to one another, they work long hours bouncing ideas, challenges and changes off of each other, and they play and work together with equal fervor. When the team gets stuck, or "punchy", they take a break to blow off steam. OCC has a massive gym and work out center right in the building for this purpose, but it's just as likely the team will engage in a goofy activity such as racing each other on hospital gurneys down the hill outside, as they did recently!
The Human Side of Innovation
While it was easy to see that enabling technologies have aided OCC's creativity, the main dynamic has been how they work together and persist until they emerge with truly unique concepts. Those of us who have had the privilege and opportunity to work on a real team like this know exactly what is going on at OCC. You can have a great innovation process and a well-funded set of resources, but if the human dynamic is not there, you will not have the right chemistry to produce the kind of results that OCC has achieved. Successful innovation stems from the people and their will to collaborate!
Headquartered at Picatinny, N.J., the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) is the Army's principal researcher, developer and sustainer of current and future armament and munitions systems. ARDEC plays a key part in Army Transformation with its involvement in the development of the Soldier and Future Combat Systems and continued efforts in the development of advanced weapons that exploit technologies like high-power microwaves, high-energy lasers and nano-technology.