LOCKHEED MARTIN SPACE SYSTEMS COMPANY

BULLETINMISSION  SUCCESS

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March 31, 2000

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OPERATIONSMICHOUD

STS-101, the second SpaceShuttle mission of 2000, willalso be the ninety-eighthShuttle flight and thetwenty-first flight for theorbiter Atlantis.

ET-102 will be used on thismission.

Six astronauts and aRussian cosmonaut willconduct maintenance workand transfer logistics itemsfor use by future occupants.

The launch of Atlantis iscurrently scheduled for noearlier than April 18.

The mission commander isslated to be Louisiana-bornastronaut Jim Halsell.

Shuttle returns toSpace Station

Orbiter Atlantis is mated with ET-102 inthe Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC.

Management appointments announcedMichoud

Operations haspromoted Eu-gene J. Horakto director,Mission Suc-cess, and Jef-frey M. Corbinto director,Business Devel-opment.

In his new position, Horak will beresponsible for technical perfor-mance oversight of all programs.He began his Lockheed Martincareer in 1961 as an engineer onthe Titan Missile program in Den-ver, Colorado. Horak moved toNew Orleans in 1991 to becomemanager, Technical Labs & NewTechnology.

Most recently, he served as

manager,ReusableLaunch Sys-tems. Horaksucceeds DaveSchwartz.

Corbin, whoreplaces KeithFrederick, isresponsible fordirecting

efforts to bring new business toMichoud Operations.

A chemical engineer, Corbinfirst joined Lockheed Martin in1983. Progressing through aseries of engineering and businesspositions, he previously served asdirector, Business Developmentat corporate headquarters inBethesda, Maryland for LockheedMartin Space Systems Company.

Gene Horak Jeff Corbin

Focus groupsanalyze surveyresults

After Lockheed Martin releasedresults from the corporate-wide 1999Lockheed Martin Employee Surveyearlier this year, the Human Re-sources department organized focusgroups to understand the responsesof employees at Michoud. The de-partment set up 12 groups each with12 members representing a crosssection of the employee populationat Michoud. One member from eachfocus group volunteered to join a“post-focus group” to pull together aconcise presentation of the data de-veloped by all the focus groups.This group reported its final findingsto the Leadership Team on March20.

Employees filling out the 1999survey responded positively to somequestions and unfavorably to others.The highest scores showed that em-ployees find their work challengingand the aerospace industry an excit-ing field. They indicated that theyare satisfied with the corporation’sbenefits package, and that they seethe connection between their workand the company’s performance ob-jectives. (For complete results of thesurvey, visit the Lockheed MartinSpace Systems Company – MichoudOperations intranet site at:

http://gumbo/lmmss.htmand look for the link to theemployee survey.)

The initial focus groups tackledthe low scores assigned the companyby the survey. They identified poten-tial causes and solutions duringtheir two-hour meetings. In a seriesof subsequent meetings, the post-focus group boiled this informationdown to four main subjects:

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Michoud’s manufacturing build-ings are taking on a new look.Where before the floors were dullconcrete, now massive tools appearto float above smooth, gleamingexpanses. A three-year project torefinish the floors of productionareas is approaching the halfwaypoint, and with striking results.

“ The project is currently autho-rized to refinish 1.2 M square feetof factory floor,” said AndrewLaurant, Facilities and Environ-mental Operations’ floor refurbish-ment project lead. “And we havecompleted around 510,000 squarefeet, or approximately 43 percent,in just over one year.”

Former MSFC ET Project Man-ager, Parker Counts, ProductionOperations Vice President JoeMarcus and Facilities and Environ-mental Operations Director ReyAbadie jointly initiated the project.

For Marcus, refinishing the floorsis a key element in updating a facil-ity that dates from World War II toensure that it remains competitive.

“There are many benefits to hav-ing a place that looks pristine,”Marcus said, speaking at a recentluncheon for the Lockheed Martin-subcontractor floor refurbishmentteam. “It raises the enthusiasmlevel of the folks who are doing thework, and it conveys a strong mes-sage that we want to do things in acleaner and more orderly fashionthan ever before. And the mainstayof this is the floor that you walk onand look at every day.”

Toledo Floor Refinishing, Inc., ofToledo, Ohio, has the job of refin-ishing the floors. To re-do an area,Facilities employees first isolate it

from surrounding areas with floor-to-ceiling curtains. These keep anystray dust from spreading, a vitalconcern in a high-tech manufactur-ing environment. Then Toledo’sinstallation crew uses a shot-blast-ing machine to remove all accumu-lated wax from the floor and to ex-pose a clean surface of concrete.

“The machine’s vacuum systemcaptures most of the dust and de-bris, and the shot is recycled forcontinued blasting,” said Laurant.

The clean concrete surface isprimed, then the crew lays down abase of grout. Over the grout goesthe final layer — two coats of super-hard epoxy paint formulation. Onlywhen the epoxy has cured longenough to bear normal traffic arethe curtains removed and use of thearea resumed.

Refurbished factory floors support excellence

“A lot of coordination betweendifferent departments is required,”said Laurant. “We check the ETproduction master schedule to iden-tify an area that will be clear of EThardware for seven to ten days.Then Production Operations andFacilities clear out everything thatisn’t bolted down. Any tool thatcan’t be moved is covered.”

At the team luncheon Abadiecomplimented Toledo’s efforts.“They have demonstrated that theycan do the job safely, with minimaldust,” he said.

“It’s been a team effort – a half amillion square feet with no produc-tion interruptions,” said Abadie. “Infootball terminology, we’re still inthe late second quarter, and we’reahead of the game. Let’s keep upthe good work.”

Manufacturing areas are the targets of the MAF floor refinishing project.

Michoud Operations passed itsfirst ISO 9001 ContinuingAssessment on March 20-23,picking up two minor non-conformances.

Lead auditor John Rogers calledthe audit the best first ContinuingAssessment he has seen after aninitial certification, and saidMichoud’s performance was “prettyimpressive for a facility this size.”

ISO audit goes well Rogers said Michoud has done agood job in getting seniormanagement buy-in and ineducating middle managementabout ISO. He also complimentedemployees, saying “the people onthe floor understood what wewanted” in the audit.

Michoud Operations gained itsISO certification last fall and willundergo another ContinuingAssessment in six months.

During a recent visit to Michoud, several members of the STS-103 crew presented the Astronaut Corps’ SilverSnoopy award to 23 Michoud Operations employees. Pictured from left to right are: (Back Row) George Moore,Product Assurance; Bill Gauley, Production Operations; Mark Knoblach, Product Assurance; Astronaut JohnGrunsfeld; Leed Colon, Program Management & Technical Operations; Astronaut Scott Kelly; Astronaut SteveSmith; Astronaut Mike Foreman; Craig Jenkins, Production Operations; Joel Copeland, Program Management &Technical Operations; Steve Wilson, Production Operations; and Burt Barrett, Business Operations;

(Middle Row) Doug Lemoine, Facilities & Environmental Operations; Rick Zerkus, Production Operations; WadeRecord, Product Assurance; Emmet Galyon, Facilities & Environmental Operations; Teresa Brenning,Management Information Systems; Vivian Tolliver, Production Operations; Doris Revere, Production Operations;and Cheryl Franckiewicz, Facilities & Environmental Operations;

(Front Row) Ray Zibilich, Production Operations; Dennis Collier, Materiel Sourcing; Terry Winchester, HumanResources; Ovidio Menendez, Production Operations; Karen Litfin, Production Operations; Kenneth Michael,Facilities & Environmental Operations; and Roy Steinbock, Program Management & Technical Operations.

Astronauts recognize contributions to Mission Success and flight safety

Focus groupsContinued from Page 1

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communication, supervision andmanagement practices, the perfor-mance appraisal process, and issuesof respect and morale. “During ouranalysis of the data, one commontheme kept rising to the surface —a breakdown in two-way communi-cation,” said Gregg Ferrell, amember of the post-focus group.“We felt that if we could correctpoor communication, most of ourproblems would take care of them-selves.”

The group conducted a structuredanalysis that started with a state-ment of the problem: employees atall levels demonstrate poor two-waycommunication skills. The groupbrainstormed some 25 probablecauses of poor communication.

They reduced these to two mostprobable causes: a lack of develop-ment when dealing with reinforce-ment of appropriate leadership andmanagement practices; and continu-ously operating with a “crisis mode”mentality.

The post-focus group thenframed a set of recommendationsdesigned to counteract these ten-dencies. These included: · Assuring greater executive andintermediate level visibility andaccessibility. The group believedthat most problems could bequickly solved if employees feltthat they could approach theirmanagement with problems and beassured that the proper actionwould be taken. · Providing specialized manage-ment training to improve commu-nication and decision-makingskills. Our existing training pro-gram should be better utilized toensure that we are producing highquality, technically-capable manag-ers. · Establishing mandatory struc-tured staff meetings to ensure thatunfiltered information flows bothdown and up. This would giveboth employees and managementexposure to problems at all levels. · Instituting standardized em-ployee rating of supervisors. Thisrating would provide a feedback to

the individual manager in both his/her strengths and weaknesses toeither build upon or improve. · Strengthening career develop-ment measures for each employee.This recommendation would servetwo purposes: 1) provide the propertraining for each employee forfuture opportunities, and 2) providea secure, clear sense of directionfor a long term company/employeerelationship.

“The group felt that the paybacksfor instituting these measureswould be substantial,” said Ferrell.The group identified as paybacks areduction in the number of workdefects, an improvement in thequality of the product and an in-crease in job efficiency. At thesame time, there will be an im-provement in employee self-es-teem, motivation and morale.Finally, the company will do abetter job of attracting and retain-ing quality employees.

The Leadership Team is cur-rently investigating these specificrecommendations for future actionsto address the issues.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems CompanyMichoud OperationsP. O. Box 29304New Orleans, LA 70189-0304

MISSION SUCCESSBULLETIN

Volume 19, Number 3March 31, 2000

Editor/Writer: Arthur NeadGraphics, Photography:

K. Barré, A. Nead, H. Williams Contributors:

A. Nead, A. Green, H. Wadsworth

Lockheed MartinSpace Systems Company

Michoud Operations

Telephone: (504) 257-1308Mission Success Bulletin is published by the Communications Department.

®

MILESTONESEmployees celebrating

milestone anniversaries withLockheed Martin in Marchinclude:

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25 yearsEdwin CantrellKenneth CowieJimmy KidwellBarbara RobinsonSusan Smith

20 yearsLisa BlaumSteve CrowGeorge CureauRoger DelesonFaye DensonFrederick EastmanKevin ElyBetty FalconGary FortmayerJoseph GarrardClifton JamesDaniel JocksJanis KidderJames LouisCharles MaloneRobert ManleyJohn MooreMichael NyeJames OrdoneKenneth PhillipsWillie ScottCarol Simmons

Herbert SiresRaymond TerranovaWayne VenusDelores Willick

15 yearsCarl HeddenSheila HillJoyce HunnicuttRobert LucasRandy McCullenPaul McDanielRobert MilnerDeadra RayfordErnest StephensHenry StewartGirod Tillman

10 yearsRobert BiggsBarry CantinRobert GravoletSandra Sollberger

5 yearsDennis CaddellWillie HendersonRussell Ladner

Drivers, keep a sharp eyeout for those pedestrians.

Traffic regulations forMichoud Assembly Facilitystate that pedestrians havethe right-of-way over vehicleswhen crossing a roadway atan intersection or crosswalk.

Near misses at markedroad crossings during thepast several months haveprompted Lockheed Martinto install new warning signsat crosswalks throughout thefacility to remind drivers toyield to pedestrians. At theheavily used crossing onVenus Avenue behind Main

Gate No. 7, Michoud has installed twohigh visibility signs with blinking lights.

Drivers should obey all stop and speedsigns both on the facility and off.

Driver courtesy equals pedestrian safety

Lockheed Martin Space SystemsCompany – Michoud Operationsemployees at KSC achieved 100

percent participation during their1999 United Way Campaign.

Lea Cahill, United WayCoordinator for MichoudOperations’ employees at KSCpresented Kim Roberts, UnitedWay of Brevard County, with acheck representing employeepledges. Roberts presented Cahillwith a plaque inscribed“Campaign Superstar Award,Lockheed Martin Michoud, forOutstanding CampaignPerformance for 1999.”

Michoud Operations’ KSCemployees contributed a total of$4,810 to United Way during therecent campaign.

Employees at KSC go all out for United Way

Pictured are (left) Kim Roberts,Brevard County United Way, and(right) coordinator Lea Cahill.

Please send mailing address updates to: sharon.h.hanson@maf.nasa.gov