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| Bob Smith SDM ’97 |
Bob Smith, SDM ’97, doesn’t
take systems thinking lightly. As chief technology officer of Honeywell
Aerospace, he’s using everything he learned in MIT’s System Design and
Management Program (SDM)—and more—to consider how to change the way aircraft
fly. The goal is to minimize delays, ease congestion, and improve fuel
efficiency.
“Air traffic control is a
system of systems challenge,” Smith said. “It includes airline operators who
want a high utility of assets, airports, the regulatory environment, and other
systems that must be integrated very well to achieve more efficient route
structures and free up capacity at major airports.”
Honeywell Aerospace serves
three major industry markets—defense, air transport, and business and general
aviation. A division within Honeywell International, it provides a broad range
of products, both mechanical and electrical, from propulsion jet engines to
radar to avionics.
“We make many of the underlying
technologies [used in airplanes], so we have to work that system of systems
problem,” he said. “Fortunately, we’ve been able to work with both Eurocontrol
(the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation) and the FAA (the
US Federal Aviation Administration) .... We’re conducting research on how to
develop certain navigation systems and how to get that systems-level analysis
and research done so that we can be in on the deployment level of the national
airspace transformation as we evolve from a ground-based system of air traffic
control to a satellite-based system of air traffic management.”
While Honeywell Aerospace is
working on the big-picture issues, it must also take on the day-to-day systems
challenges. “There are probably three different fundamental ways in which
systems thinking is really affecting our business,” Smith said. The problem of
air traffic control is one, he said, and the second is the increasing demand
for tighter integration of aircraft systems components. For example, the US
Defense Department’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is a very small aircraft that
needs to perform many different tasks—according to the DOD, it’s designed to be
“affordable, lethal, supportable, and survivable”—so tight integration is a
necessity, Smith said.
Thirdly, Honeywell is
increasingly assuming more program management functions—ensuring that Honeywell
components work well with each other and with third party components too, a
classic systems challenge.
“A couple of generations ago,”
Smith said, “they would ask Honeywell to build an auxiliary power unit, and we
would say here’s our gas turbine engine. That would be it. Now we also have the
responsibility for integrating the generator and the muffler. There’s an
evolution there where they want you to help design the whole tail cone.”
Smith brings years of
experience to tackling the complex challenges at Honeywell Aerospace. A
technical expert in guidance navigation and control, he rose to hold leadership
roles as system director at The Aerospace Corporation and executive director at
United Space Alliance before joining Honeywell in 2004 as vice president of
advanced technology. He was promoted to chief technology officer in September
2009.
He also brings with him the
lessons he learned at SDM in the late 1990s. “I liked SDM for a couple
reasons,” he said. “The program did a really nice job providing a good balance
of the critical aspects needed to be successful as a business or functional
leader in the aerospace industry: technical acumen, managerial capabilities,
and an understanding of how to manage system complexity.”
Smith said he has particularly
valued the organizational design and development tools he learned at SDM. Since
change management is an ongoing occurrence, “you can always tune up your
business using these tools,” he said. “I was able to apply [them] on day one at
Honeywell.”
SDM also connected Smith to a
network of systems professionals that continues to serve him well today. “That
network has been preserved, and it’s one that I really value,” Smith said.
“My fellow SDM students were
outstanding. For me, being in a program that is for people who have had some
experience in business—not students fresh out of school—led to a much richer
experience,” he said. “[Class discussions] weren’t theoretical, but based on real-world
experience.”
Smith has agreed to give a
presentation to current SDM students in spring 2011. Although he has not zeroed
in on a topic yet, he said he will likely focus on some of the larger
socioeconomic trends he sees and ways to respond to them. For example, he said
Honeywell is working on sustainability issues, including green fuel
development. “The drive for fuel efficiency is built into everything we do,” he
said. “If you can make a plane lighter and use less fuel, people will pay for
that and the environment will benefit.”
Smith said systems thinking is
fundamental to all these efforts—which is why his SDM experience continues to
be relevant more than 10 years later. “Being able to understand the complexity
of the business interactions and the necessity of technical iterations is
increasingly important,” he said. “The trajectory of technology and systems and
organizations have evolved where interoperability is a requirement now in
almost every field.” This trend is likely to continue, he said, with more and
more businesses taking on system of systems challenges.
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