President Reagan's Program to Secure U.S. Leadership Indefinitely: Project Socrates by Ackman Ervin

Author:Ackman, Ervin [Ackman, Ervin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ervin Ackman
Published: 2013-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

The second was that a high-energy laser was the only mechanism that was viable for shock peening.

GE had developed the company's Laser Shock Peening process using a million dollar laser that was pushing the envelope of maximum power output. Once the process was in production, it had major limitations that greatly hindered the competitive advantage it was expected to generate for GE.

The high cost of the laser meant that GE could only afford to have one laser for the LSP production line producing gas turbine engines, i.e., no back-ups, as is normally the case for a production line. Additionally, because the laser was pushing the technology envelope for maximum power output, the reliability of the laser was low and the frequent repair work required was not easily obtainable. When the LSP failed, specialized repair personnel had to come from a distant location. As a result, it was a major challenge to keep the LSP production line operational for more than just a few days at a time. The cost per repair part was very high and the reliability of parts availability was low.

Because of these circumstances, GE was limited to using their LSP process only on the most critical parts of gas turbine engines, i.e., the blades that went into the most advanced aerospace fighters for the US military. This represented an extremely small portion of the entire market for wear-resistant parts for commercial and military aerospace platform gas turbine engines significantly decreasing the payback for the investment in LSP.

Sekora and team developed a Technologyspace Map® for beam shock peening within Socrates first generation Automated Innovation System. The map was used with GE to identify competitors, determine each competitor's technology strategy, and develop a technology strategy for GE.

From the Technologyspace Map®, instead of one competitor as GE had originally determined from a traditional market scan, the team could see that GE had fifty-one present competitors and eight potential future competitors for beam shock peening. The present competitors were those organizations that possessed a complete beam shock peening process. Future competitors were those organizations executing a technology strategy, which left unchecked, would result in a beam shock peening process that could effectively compete with GE.

To aid in understanding this example using GE’s actual technology strategy presented below, key Socrates system phrases and terms are color-coded. Also a review of the four dimensions of the technologyspace in Chapter 2 may be helpful:

Red represents technology maneuvers as part of the overall technology strategy

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