Skunk Works Research Articles

The Power of Connection between Systems Engineering and 3D Wire Harness: Model‐Based Wire Harness Engineering at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works

AbstractLockheed Martin Skunk Works has extended their digital engineering approach for wire harness engineering to span system architecture, logical design, 3D design and manufacturing representation. Their Model‐Based Wire Harness Engineering realizes the promise of Model‐Based Systems Engineering through significant improvements in integrating SysML models and 3D designs.

Entrepreneurial strategies for MNCs: A typology

This paper, responds to the recent calls in research, to address the theoretical underpinnings of entrepreneurial strategies in MNC’s. Today, a multiplicity of entrepreneurial approaches exists, cf. skunk work, bricolage, bootlegging. However, these exists in disparate literature, that provides limited oversight to managers in, that need to select between a manifold of different entrepreneurial strategies. Moreover, these approaches typically originate from a distinctively different organizational context, namely SMEs. Through a literature review we identify two important axiomatic assumptions concerning entrepreneurial strategies within the organizational conditions of MNCs. The first fundamental assumption concerns the organizational origin of such effort. The second theoretical assumption deals with how the entrepreneurial initiative can meet either organizational resistance or support. We synthesize these two dimensions into a two-by-two matrix, that provides an answer to our research question: what are the critical dimensions for entrepreneurial strategies in an MNC context? We then employ this typology to categorize predominant entrepreneurial strategies in current literature, to create a overview that can be used both for structuring the debate in the literature; as well as a basis to discuss important implicit assumptions, that should guide the selection of entrepreneurial strategy in a MNC context in practice.

Structuring for innovative responses to human resource challenges: A skunk works approach

Increasingly, organizations find that they need to be more flexible and innovative in responding to unexpected and emergent human resource (HR) issues affecting their members, such as outbreaks of infectious diseases (e.g., COVID-19) forcing massive transition to remote work, changes in industry landscape altering learning and development, and politically-driven global mobility regulations restricting people flow. Organizations have long utilized informal structures known as “skunk works”, flexible groups empowered to work rapidly with minimal management constraints, to address technological challenges. In this article, we aim to better understand when and how organizations similarly employ skunk works-like structures to help them deal with rapidly evolving HR-related challenges. We discuss three examples of organizations that have utilized this approach. We then integrate the learning insights from these examples to develop a framework supported by a set of research questions to guide future scholarship into HR skunk works. We emphasize that there are both benefits and drawbacks of innovative organizational structures for addressing HR challenges alongside regular, established ways of working.

The Grand Designers: The Evolution of the Airplane in the 20th Century by John D. Anderson Jr.

Reviewed by: The Grand Designers: The Evolution of the Airplane in the 20th Century by John D. Anderson Jr. Marc J. Alsina (bio) The Grand Designers: The Evolution of the Airplane in the 20th Century By John D. Anderson Jr. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Even the most cursory comparison of a Wright Flyer and a modern airliner leaves no doubt about the dizzying rate of change in aircraft technology throughout the twentieth century. In his latest book, National Air & Space Museum Curator of Aerodynamics John D. Anderson Jr. investigates what he describes as the “intellectual methodology” of conceptual aircraft design that drove the swift improvement of aviation technology. Anderson follows the careers of several “grand designers”—the Wright Brothers, Frank Barnwell, Arthur Raymond, R. J. Mitchell, Edgar Schmued, and Kelly Johnson—revealing the design processes these men used to transform their ideas into highly successful aircraft. [End Page 976] As Anderson explains, conceptual design is the first stage in creating a new airplane. Generally, the designer starts with a blank sheet of paper, then establishes the basic layout that will ideally meet the potential users’ performance requirements. Alongside their analysis of experimental data, aircraft designers marshal their experience, intuition, and aesthetic preferences to mold their creations. Anderson argues that despite differing personalities and education, all of his “grand designers” used the same basic methodology to establish and refine their conceptual designs. He begins with the nineteenth-century rudimentary flying machines, whose creators largely lacked a cohesive design methodology. In chapter two, Anderson reveals how the Wright Brothers were the first to create a “rational methodology” for aircraft design. In addition to understanding the airplane as a system, the brothers refined their design using mathematical parameters such as weight, lift coefficients, and velocity. These “design points” focused their design and experimentation process, eventually garnering them success where so many others failed. Yet the next designer, Frank Barnwell, is at the heart of The Grand Designers. Anderson argues that Barnwell, a fixture of the British aircraft industry until his death in 1928, set the “gold standard” for conceptual design. In his 1916 book Aeroplane Design, Barnwell described his process as starting with a precise outline of requirements before making a weight estimate. The requirements and projected weight then determined the desired performance parameters for the aircraft (such as the lift-to-drag ratio). Only then did the designer sketch a basic layout. Barnwell then reevaluated the estimated performance of the aircraft and made adjustments. Anderson argues that Barnwell’s method became commonplace in the aircraft design community. The other case studies reinforce the centrality of Barnwell’s methodology. In chapter four, Anderson follows Arthur Raymond and the creation of the DC-3 during the first “design revolution” in aviation in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The author emphasizes that Raymond used the same intellectual methodology of design, despite new advancements in streamlining, engines, and construction. This line of argument, however, is stretched in the subsequent chapters discussing R. J. Mitchell’s work on the Spitfire, Edgar Schmued on the P-51 Mustang, and Kelly Johnson with the “Skunk Works.” The book would have benefited from further analysis of these radical new technologies and the eccentricities of these designers. While Anderson focuses on the similarities of their methods, he also draws interesting distinctions in their uses of wind tunnel data, aerodynamic theory, and aesthetic taste for shaping their design. These details dispel any notion that educational background or familiarity with scientific theory were the sole determinants of success in the first half of the twentieth century. The Grand Designers is intended for both nontechnical and technical audiences and indeed succeeds in being accessible for newcomers to aviation [End Page 977] history and compelling for technical readers. Anderson excels when explaining complex processes of design, aerodynamic theory, and experimental testing. The many images accompanying the text bring extra clarity to what might have been an abstruse subject. Anderson’s secondary arguments about education and the relevance of scientific experimentation and theory to these grand designers’ processes deserve more emphasis. Furthermore, extensive footnoting would have helped to separate technical information from the overall narrative of each chapter. The Grand Designers is an...

The seven dimensions of Skunk Works: a new approach and what makes it unique

PurposeThis paper aims to study the definition and formation of Skunk Works and how it may present itself as a viable theoretical alternative to other mainstream concepts of collective/corporate entrepreneurships, while dissecting some of the prevalent misconceptions of the extant literature regarding the application of Skunk Works.Design/methodology/approachThis is a literature-based conceptual study that compares and differentiates various forms of group entrepreneurships as discussed in the academic debate.FindingsThis study shows how Skunk Works differs from other forms of collective/corporate entrepreneurship through its seven dimensions (isolation, customer needs, focus, planning, trusted project manager, cross-functional teams and leveraging overlaps) while challenging the dominant extant contenders of collective/corporate entrepreneurship.Practical implicationsSkunk Works remains a sustainable form of entrepreneurship, and it is still viable to consider it as a practical construct for smaller as well as larger organisations as a means of solving complicated innovative tasks requiring a multidisciplinary team with expert competence in a relatively quicker period of time.Social implicationsOrganisations may take greater initiatives towards assembling entrepreneurial teams in the Skunk Work tradition.Originality/valueAs a means of understanding collective/corporate entrepreneurship, this study dissects some of the original fundamental cornerstones of Skunk Works entrepreneurship in an effort to present it as a viable alternative construct to the dominant construct of entrepreneurial orientation as well as other extant constructs.

The Crisis at Encyclopædia Britannica

Encyclopædia Britannica was the leading provider of encyclopedias in the English language, but after sales declined rapidly in the early 1990s the company was forced to file for bankruptcy. Many different organizational and market factors contributed to this crisis, such as the diffusion of the PC, the invention of Encarta, the technical challenges of moving text to electronic formats, and the difficulties of inventing a new format while also operating the leading seller of books. Looking back, what could the company have done differently?To illustrate important themes on a leading firm's response to technical opportunities and threats; teach students about technological waves, technological disruption, and different concepts of obsolescence; and examine strategic concepts such as attacker's advantages and skunk works.

Augmenting corporate R&D with networked micro innovation teams

Continuous innovation is key to a company's growth. The current models for corporate research and development are not suited for evaluating small scale emerging technology and trends. Networked micro innovation teams fill that gap and augment corporate R&D expenditure but using employee volunteers to identify and evaluate innovative concepts. These teams provide competitive advantages to the companies which develop them. The basic structure of corporate research and development has not changed despite radical changes in how ideas and technologies emerge in the market [1]. There is ample opportunity for companies to create internal innovation teams which evaluate emerging technologies and trends at a smaller scale than is practical with the traditional R&D departments. There are few studies among the legion about R&D which consider very small, or micro, innovations. Technology now enables a different approach to identifying and testing opportunities at a drastically smaller, cheaper scale than. In the past, innovative R&D departments have created autonomous islands free from bureaucracy or traditional management in order to address specific goals. Lockheed Martin's skunk work [2] and Alphabet's X lab (formerly Google[x]) are examples of innovation incubators outside the formal R&D process [3]. Creating separate laboratories which operate under separate rules can be useful pursuing auditions goals and for time and capital intensive projects, however, even these looser structures are overkill for the needs of some projects. To fill this gap, companies should create micro innovation teams which function as a network of local, decentralized teams. For example, buying an Oculus rift to explore its capabilities is an act too small for either a traditional or skunk works-style corporate R&D department. Yet, there are many opportunities for open innovation available to companies if they have the ability to conduct rapid and small-scale experimentation.

Applying lean in product development - enabler or inhibitor of creativity?

Lean has become increasingly popular as a process management approach outside its original application in manufacturing, and it is frequently used as a means to increase efficiency in research and development (R&D) processes. Previous research suggests that lean can be used to increase R&D efficiency, but there is disagreement on whether or not this comes at the expense of creativity. In this article, the effects of lean product development on creativity are studied by means of case studies in the R&D departments of five companies. The empirical observations highlighted a number of important aspects when applying lean in product development. The data suggested that a primary focus of lean in product development was flow, rather than waste reduction, and that significant focus was given to the reduction of disturbances. Another finding was the need for a long–term perspective in R&D to safeguard creativity and that the reduction of slack time following the implementation of lean clearly limited the opportunities to undertake unsanctioned innovation projects, often referred to as 'skunk work'. Finally, the importance of management support and employee training to aid the implementation of lean was emphasised.

Lessons from slime mold: How to survive and thrive in ever‐changing organizational environments

Kate Rutter is a senior practitioner at Adaptive Path. She blogs at www.adaptivepath.com or at her personal site www.intelleto.com. Her email address is kate adaptivepath.com. I magine you’re in a forest, surrounded by majestic towering trees. Underfoot is the soft, leafy, damp forest floor. Taking a seat on a fallen log, you arch the kinks out of your hunched shoulders, shake off the stress of the office and take a deep breath of fragrant, moist air. You ask yourself why work feels like you are part of a never-ending rat race...and you wonder...will it ever stop? How are you going to spearhead that major project or work with a new cross-functional team and deliver great results when the organizational environment hampers you? Much as I hate to interrupt your well-earned contemplation, I’m compelled to inform you that on the underside of the log you are sitting on is a life form teeming with insight about organizational behavior. Throughout the seemingly quiet forest, thousands of spores are performing an age-old dance, expressing quietly the tactics of surviving and thriving in this dynamic and ever-changing wooded environment. Say “hello” to slime mold. This lower fungus has evolved a clear set of survival techniques that are potent lessons for people grappling with challenges posed by shifting companies and markets. Who knew that insights into survival could be found literally under your feet? For years, biologists, botanists, media moguls, artists, authors and technologists have been captivated by the sophistication and tenacity of the slime mold lifecycle and the slime mold’s ability to morph from plant-like to animal-like behaviors in constant sync with the environment. I’m not a biologist. I’m a designer working in the field of digital products, information architecture and interaction design. But over the past eight years, I’ve been entranced with slime mold as a compelling metaphor for organizational development. In my work as an employee, manager, director and consultant, I’ve observed how organizations and teams shift in response to external forces, and I’ve found trends and patterns for acclimating and adapting to change. This article shares the examples that I’ve observed and explores possibilities and approaches for how businesses and people in them can better adapt to a rate of change that is rapidly becoming the standard for doing business. By using slime mold as a learning tool, we can identify practical tips and tools for surviving, thriving and doing great work in even the toughest of environments. This fascinating life form holds intriguing lessons for today’s knowledge worker... from sensing and responding to environments that become hostile to using the power of signals to create alignment and collective action.

Moon Over Manhattan

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Barack Obama, Acceptance Speech at the Democratic Convention, Denver, Colorado, 28 August 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/us/politics/28text-obama.html. Al Gore, ‘A Generational Challenge to Repower America’, speech at the DAR Constitution Hall, Washington DC, 17 July 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/17/AR2008071701896.html. Renewing America's Promise, the 2008 Democratic National Platform, 25 August 2008, http://www.democrats.org/a/party/platform.html See http://www.apolloalliance.org. John F. Kennedy, ‘Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs’, 25 May 1961, http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/003POF03NationalNeeds05251961.htm; For a detailed discussion of the roots and progress of the Apollo programme, see Walter A. McDougall, …the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (New York: Basic Books, 1985). Ronald Reagan, ‘First Inaugural Address’, 20 January 1981, http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/first.asp. Ronald Reagan, ‘Address to the Nation on National Security’, 23 March 1983, http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/offdocs/rrspch.htm. Ronald Reagan, ‘State of the Union 1986’, 4 February 1986, http://www.presidential-speeches.org/State-of-the-Union-1986-Ronald-Reagan.php. Deborah D. Stine, The Manhattan Project, the Apollo Program and Federal Energy Technology R&D Programs: A Comparative Analysis, CRS Report for Congress RL34645 (Washington DC: Congressional Research Service, 24 September 2008), p. 7. Steven A. Hildreth, Ballistic Missile Defense: Historical Overview, CRS Report for Congress RS22120 (Washington DC: Congressional Research Service, 9 July 2007). For histories of the Manhattan Project see Stephane Groueff, Manhattan Project: The Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb (London: Collins, 1967); Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986), chs 14–17. Stine, The Manhattan Project, the Apollo Program and Federal Energy Technology R&D Programs, p. 7. For discussion of the organisational factors key to DARPA's success, see W.B. Bonvillian, ‘Power Play’, The American Interest, vol. 2, November–December 2006. For a similar discussion of the Skunk Works, see Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos, Skunk Works (New York: Little, Brown and Co., 1994), ch. 16. Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, 6 June 1986, available at http://history.nasa.gov/sts51l.html. ‘Afternoon with Barack Obama’, Reno Gazette-Journal, http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/ VIDEO/. Barack Obama, ‘Inaugural Address’, 20 January 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President_Barack_Obamas_Inaugural_Address/. Barack Obama, ‘Address to Joint Session of Congress’, 24 February 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-President-Barack-Obama- Address-to-Joint-Session-of-Congress/. Jonathan Chait, ‘TRB: Hurry Up and Waste’, New Republic, 4 March 2009, http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=943f400a-335b-4173-90c3- 3fa82fd12b8a. HR 364, 10 January 2007, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR00364. The agency was established in August 2007 by the America Competes Act (PL 110-69), but not funded in FY2008. George Leopold, ‘Stimulus: Energy Department Scrambles to Build New R&D Agency’, EE Times, 23 February 2009, http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=214502434. President Jimmy Carter, ‘Address to the Nation on Energy’, 18 April 1977, http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3398; William Safire, Safire's Political Dictionary (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 436 Additional informationNotes on contributorsJeffrey MazoJeffrey Mazo is Managing Editor of Survival.

The First 50 Years of Total Hip Arthroplasty: Lessons Learned

Fifty years have passed since the first total hip arthroplasty of the modern era was performed. At this, the vantage point, it is reasonable to review these five decades, inquiring behind the single dominating observation that, in its current form, this operation is one of the most successful of all surgical procedures for the management of end-stage human disease. What are the generic lessons that can be derived from the experience? Succinctly, five major observations appear valuable. They are "skunk works," "Pasteur's motto," "the totally unexpected," "research solutions," and "the role of alternatives." "Skunk works," an industrial management term, might be characterized as an innovative endeavor that is offline and off-budget resulting from the relentless pursuit of a vivid dream by creative zealots who eschew defeat. Pasteur's motto dealt with serendipity, which was crucial to total hip arthroplasty progress. The totally unexpected is represented by an entirely new manmade disease, "periprosthetic osteolysis." The research solutions are represented by the complex, sophisticated contemporary research that has unraveled periprosthetic osteolysis and suggested modes of correction. Finally, the application of "alternatives" has characterized major progress. Importantly, these, or similar generic observations, may provide insights into important progress in the future.

Degrees of Freedom: Models of Corporate Relationships

The author discusses three models of corporate partnership that support the creation of new-media art: directed altruism, skunk works (product development), and regulated self-interest. Similar activities can occur across these models, but expectations, criteria for assessment and final outcomes may differ. Clarifying the rules of engagement for arts organizations and artists when they work with corporations is critical to success for both artists and companies. This essay provides a framework and examples for each model from Canada, Finland, the United Kingdom and the United States. It evaluates failures as well as successes.

Synthetic Image Sequence Compression.

This paper describes a technique for compressing computer screen shots into a GIF animation file. The goal is to distribute the animations, to a variety of browsers, without requiring a plug-in or helper application. We seek to minimize the size of the image sequence, while maximizing the signal to noise ratio of the sequence. The GIF animation format has several constraints; images may have a maximum of 256 colors, and the images must all be of the same size. Further, to minimize overhead, we seek to make use of a single color lookup table for the entire animation. Several color quantization algorithms are compared, using SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) as the metric of quality (as well as subjective appearance). We present the design of an interface, written in Java, and distributed freely using Java Web Start, that employs a well know neural network program and a color quantization algorithm to capture screen shots and save them to the GIF animation. GIF animations represent silent movies, as they have no sound to accompany them. However, they are still in wide use and have applications in entertainment and education. The techniques described are a part of the JSnap project, a joint project between the skunk works of DocJava, Inc. and Fairfield University.

Resource Bundling for Distributed Computing.

This paper describes techniques for integrating programs and their resources. The goal is to distribute the programs, to a variety of platforms, without loosing the resources that they need in order to run. Programs so integrated are less fragile than their nonintegrated counterparts. The techniques described include the use of a semi-automatic source code synthesizer, XML-based serialization and a base-64 GZIP encoded string format. The approach is suitable for small data objects (i.e., icons, short audio signals, etc.). It has been used, with good success, on a variety of projects. One drawback of the technique is that an added step is required during program development in order to integrate resources into the code. Another drawback is that integrating resources into the source code can dramatically increase the size of the class files. On the other hand, once the class files are loaded, the resources are available in memory (and hence, quickly accessible). The techniques described are a part of the Kahindu project, a joint project between the skunk works of DocJava, Inc. and Fairfield University. Kahindu is the name of a village in Kenya known for its fine coffee.

Project Initium: Programmatic Deployment.

This paper describes the design and use of a Java Web Start framework called Initium. Initium generates a jar file that minimizes the number of included classes by performing a static class dependency analysis. It then prompts the programmer for security parameters that enable the programmatic signing of the jar file, for the purpose of authentication. Initium generates a local Java Network Launch Protocol file (JNLP file) for the purpose of testing, as well as a remote JNLP file, for deployment. Finally, Initium programmatically uploads both the JNLP and jar files to the web server, to complete the deployment cycle. The signing of a jar file enables web start clients to execute a Java application in a trusted and distributed manner. Trusted jar files can be executed outside of the “sandbox” and thus be given access to files, or be able to open connections to hosts other than the web host on the target system. Initium is a Latin word that means: “at the start”. It is part of an on-going project at both the DocJava Inc. skunk works and Fairfield University.

The Imperion Threading System.

This paper describes the use of the command, facade and decorator design patterns to alter the interface and add new responsibilities to threads. Termed Project Imperion, the threads are developed with the same design patterns as previously reported for Imperion GUI components [Lyon 2004b]. The benefits of Imperion threading include: simplifying code, easing maintenance, separation of thread management logic from the business logic and improved reliability. Our experience shows that threads are often run more than once. They are frequently stopped and then restarted. However, the present mechanisms for doing this are both low-level and exception-prone. Imperion threads have built-in support for iteration. They support killing and restarting threads by introducing a new class called the RunJob. The RunJob tracks the number of times it has been run, and can be set to run only so many times before it dies. It can be set to start automatically, or be set to wait until explicitly started (or restarted). The Imperion threading system is a more reliable threading system than the normal java.lang.Thread. Imperion removes dangerous methods and guards’ inputs in order to avoid exceptions. For example, the daemon property can only be set during construction, priorities are guarded for correctness and restarting is safe. This avoids a fruitful source of complex run-time errors that have been bugging both novice and seasoned programmers since the release of JDK 1.0. Project Imperion was named for the Latin root, imperium, which means the power to command. Like the Intel use of the word CELERON, the on suffix was added to give the word a high-tech look (like electron, proton or muon). It was first conceived at the skunk works of DocJava, Inc., in the late 1990’s.

Into digital computing through the back door

From a hazy dream of writing a great American novel to heading up the renowned Lockheed Skunk Works, Sherman Mullin explains how he came to be an engineer-in digital computing, moreover, when the rest of the world was still mostly analog. Like most people who entered the digital computing field in the 1950s, he had no formal education in this technology. Like others, he learned mostly by doing. He began with the US Air Force, then moved to the Burroughs Corporation in Philadelphia. He progressed through various jobs and ended up as president of Lockheed Advanced Development Company.

Nostrad becomes skunk work technologies

Nostrad Telecommunications Inc has changed its name to Skunk Work Technologies Inc as part of its efforts to develop its water treatment business. As part of the change, the company’s trading symbol on the OTC has changed from NSTC to SKNT. This is a short news story only. Visit www.filtsep.com for the latest filtration industry news

Competitive advantage: what’s luck got to do with it?

Luck remains an elusive theoretical concept in the business literature yet a fascinating practical phenomenon in business reality. In addition to effective strategic maneuvering and well‐run internal management, luck often plays a non‐trivial role as a determinant of competitive advantage and firm performance. Understanding the various types of luck and the contextual conditions under which luck strikes is therefore expected to help a firm gain competitive advantage. This paper advances a typology of different scenarios of luck – pure luck, prepared luck, useful weeds, and skunk work – and expounds the strategic implications of these scenarios for the firm’s search for competitive advantage. Taking a proactive approach, it untangles the typical environmental sources of luck as well as the intra‐firm mechanisms and processes through which a firm could better induce, recognize, and exploit lucky incidents of innovations from useful weeds or skunk works.

X-33 Hypersonic Aerodynamic Characteristics

X-33 Hypersonic Aerodynamic Characteristics