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SHORTLY AFTER THE TRAGIC OKLAHOMA CITY bombing in 1995, President Clinton made a commitment to significantly increase security at federal buildings by the one-year anniversary of the attack. With just two months remaining before the deadline, EG&G Astrophysics won a contract from the General Services Administration (GSA) to build and deliver appropriate security screening systems. Pressed by a GSA delivery requirement of 30 days, Astrophysics kicked into high gear and shipped 300 X-ray security systems in April 1996, a feat that would have been unthinkable before a complete restructuring of the operation began to take hold in 1994.
For instance, during 1993 Astrophysics shipped a total of 479 units with roughly the same headcount. However, a remake including a shift to cellular manufacturing, teamoriented employee empowerment, and strong supplier partnerships-all within a culture of continuous improvement-gave the world's largest manufacturer of nonintrusive detection systems, X-ray screening, and metal detectors the capability to deliver on-time, "essentially placing us in a sole-source position for additional orders," says Jim Reynolds, director of materials.
Originally a sole proprietorship, EG&G Astrophysics was birthed as Scanray Corp. in 1971 and acquired by EG&G Inc. in 1988. As late as 1992, flexibility and agility were hardly watchwords at Astrophysics. "At that point we had manufacturing and operations people who were of the `old mentality-production-line-type management, high inventories, and long leadtimes," says Tom Schorling, president. "The management style was very autocratic- with a VP of manufacturing, a couple of shop foremen, and [the rest] workers. There were no layers of management down on the floor."
Even with this management scenario, Astrophysics dominated the market, mainly airline customers, because there was little competition. But that began to change around 1989, exposing the weaknesses of the old Astrophysics system. "To accommodate growth, we bought more inventory and set up more manufacturing lines, all of the traditional ways to do it," says Schorling. "But we were complacent, and some of that complacency allowed competition to emerge with newer technology."
In addition to competitive forces, the nature of the security marketplace began to change. Business was expanding into nonaviation applications including access control at government buildings, mailroom inspection of incoming parcels in corporate offices, and screening at special events such as the Olympics and rock concerts. With...