The Aberdeen Experiment
UV4297
March 24, 2010
THE ABERDEEN EXPERIMENT
The phone rang yet again, but Sarah Mann, general manager of the BAE Systems plant in Aberdeen, South Dakota, was ready. Experience told her what the question would be: Had the “Aberdeen experiment,” begun by Bob Lancaster when the plant was built, undergone any changes over the past quarter century? From the beginning, Lancaster’s design and management of the plant, which produced missile launch canisters for the U.S. Navy, were unusual—and successful. The plant, built in 1985 as part of FMC Corporation (FMC), had been acquired in 2005 by BAE Systems, Europe’s secondlargest defense contractor. The plant had evolved significantly since its inception, and Mann had learned that observers wanted to know: Was the innovative design still working in 2010? Had history validated Lancaster’s initiative? For this call and those that would follow, she was ready with her notes.
Sarah Mann’s Inheritance The Aberdeen experiment began in 1983. FMC’s Naval Systems Division (NSD) won a secondary sourcing bid with the U.S. Navy to supply surface ship missile-launching canisters. NSD’s director of manufacturing, Ron Weaver, chose Lancaster, the manager of a plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky to head the new plant, which would be expected to produce the 2’ × 2’ × 20’ canisters at a rate of two per day. Lancaster had captured Weaver’s attention with his unorthodox managerial style and ability to raise plant productivity rates some 10 to 15 points higher than those of other FMC facilities. In the fall of 1984, Weaver and Lancaster chose as the site for the new facility, from among many aggressive offers, Aberdeen, South Dakota, a town of approximately 30,000 people located only 90 minutes southwest by air from divisional headquarters in Minneapolis. In return for the selection, the Aberdeen Development Corporation had offered to erect a building to NSD specifications, give NSD favorable tax status, and assist in whatever way
March 24, 2010
THE ABERDEEN EXPERIMENT
The phone rang yet again, but Sarah Mann, general manager of the BAE Systems plant in Aberdeen, South Dakota, was ready. Experience told her what the question would be: Had the “Aberdeen experiment,” begun by Bob Lancaster when the plant was built, undergone any changes over the past quarter century? From the beginning, Lancaster’s design and management of the plant, which produced missile launch canisters for the U.S. Navy, were unusual—and successful. The plant, built in 1985 as part of FMC Corporation (FMC), had been acquired in 2005 by BAE Systems, Europe’s secondlargest defense contractor. The plant had evolved significantly since its inception, and Mann had learned that observers wanted to know: Was the innovative design still working in 2010? Had history validated Lancaster’s initiative? For this call and those that would follow, she was ready with her notes.
Sarah Mann’s Inheritance The Aberdeen experiment began in 1983. FMC’s Naval Systems Division (NSD) won a secondary sourcing bid with the U.S. Navy to supply surface ship missile-launching canisters. NSD’s director of manufacturing, Ron Weaver, chose Lancaster, the manager of a plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky to head the new plant, which would be expected to produce the 2’ × 2’ × 20’ canisters at a rate of two per day. Lancaster had captured Weaver’s attention with his unorthodox managerial style and ability to raise plant productivity rates some 10 to 15 points higher than those of other FMC facilities. In the fall of 1984, Weaver and Lancaster chose as the site for the new facility, from among many aggressive offers, Aberdeen, South Dakota, a town of approximately 30,000 people located only 90 minutes southwest by air from divisional headquarters in Minneapolis. In return for the selection, the Aberdeen Development Corporation had offered to erect a building to NSD specifications, give NSD favorable tax status, and assist in whatever way