Delivering hi-tech products to the most complex industries in the world – aerospace and defence – EADS must rely on its control of costs, schedules and efficiency being as mature as possible. To ensure this, the company is implementing Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI).
Airbus, Astrium, Eurocopter and Eurofighter are all well known EADS brands. The company’s ‘system house’, Defence and Communications Systems (DCS), must respond to customers’ increasingly complex needs for systems which integrate all kinds of networks and equipment, including aircrafts, vessels, vehicles and even satellites.
Obviously, in order to do so, EADS DCS must continuously strive to have the smoothest processes in such important projects.
“This will be profitable for both the organisation itself, due to cost and schedule controls, and EADS’ customers, which set the highest standards for quality and on-time deliveries,” says François Mignot, head of DCS Quality and Project & Risk Mgt.
Long-term and practical tool
François Mignot explains that previous quality improvements to EADS DCS were driven by ISO9001. “However, ISO is a very wide-ranging standard. Although it’s a good framework, it’s not sufficient for EADS’ complex projects,” he explains.
“Due to the nature of the industries we're involved in and our worldwide locations, we must be excellent in emerging technologies and processes and, of course, project management. We must also be able to quickly and easily adapt to new technologies. I was previously familiar with CMMI and when I joined DCS I realised that it would be relevant for all our activities. It's a long-term and practical tool which provides basic rules, principles and best practices for the whole organisation,” he says.
François Mignot continues: “CMMI was originally devised by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), based at Carnegie Mellon University in the US. It has proven to be very valuable to the defence and aerospace industry and has also been used in most industrial domains. It not only helps compliance with regulations, it also allows companies to obtain objective business benefits and achieve efficiency and high quality IT.”
Measures the return on investments
"CMMI previously focused more on improving software development processes, but now covers all stakeholders involved in developing large systems. By applying a similar methodology to all, CMMI improves efficiency and the return on investments, something which is highly visible and can be measured,” he emphasises.
“In a global, highly competitive and changing market, control of costs and schedules is a top priority in every business. CMMI addresses both cost and quality issues, both of which are important to our customers and employees. Most of all, CMMI gives us feedback on issues raised and allows us to identify new issues. By comparing our everyday practices with those identified by the model, we can better identify our internal best practices and determine exactly what changes need to be made,” says François Mignot.
Five steps towards maturity
CMMI is structured around five levels of ‘maturity’. In 2006, DCS has launched a transformation programme called SCOPE and CMMI is part of this project. “By 2009, we should be finished with the objective of reaching high maturity levels,” he states.
CMMI will also provide a global framework and reference for all DCS locations in the UK, Germany, Finland and France, thus lessening national diversities.
“An international and interlaced organisation such as ours must both take cultural differences into consideration and comply with the same models and systems. This reinforces integration between the different locations. We are a company, not a country, and all projects and employees should head in the same direction,” he states.
Rapid reimbursement of implementation costs
“Although we are on track with the implementation, there are naturally still challenges to be overcome. In general, organisational changes like this always face internal resistance with regard to both time and money, even if the top management is fully dedicated to them. Some parts of an organisation claim they do not have enough time or money to implement the necessary changes, but they obviously have enough money to cover the losses due to maintaining the status quo of inefficient operations. Rather ironic,” he says smiling.
“First of all, we have to implement the CMMI model to improve the operations, not just to receive a certificate,” he says.
“Furthermore, before starting the process, we must consider the real in-house benefits of it and then apply these benefits to the existing business objectives, keeping in mind that the initial costs will be reimbursed by fewer losses due to better quality and better time control of projects.
“For a successful implementation, we have to change the organisation's mentality, and this requires a lot of communication and involvement at managerial and staff levels.
The selection of real projects as pilots makes it more likely that the organisation will take a stake in the improvements. We'll be better able to demonstrate the value provided and will increase our overall chances of success,” concludes François Mignot.