The case organisation is the land division of BAE Systems Plc. They are one of the world’s largest defence contractors and offer a diverse range of military vehicles, who in recent years have looked toward servitization to differentiate themselves and retain their competitive edge. To date, they have provided availability of platforms, availability of parts and spares and repairs service contracts for their customer (principally the UK MoD), with the latter two services being the most common. During war time, the equipment-in-use with the customer is likely to be (re)configured on a consistent basis to accommodate the changing nature of their context and to fill a capability gap that is preventing the customer from achieving their outcomes. Therefore, one of the primary roles of the organisation during war time is to support the customer in use by designing resources that satisfy emergent needs. During war time, the organisation can therefore be seen as designing for high variety. The (re)configuration of the physical assets is done via a process called
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urgent operational requirements (UOR). An UOR is a process used by the UK MoD during UK military campaigns when there is a requirement for military goods or services that arise from:
1) Identification of capability gaps currently not filled or emerging as a result of current operational use; or
2) Where existing orders need speeding up to cope with the increasing demands or emergent requirements during operational use in order to bring the capability required into service at a faster rate6.
Within this thesis, the UOR process has been selected as the primary case study as the phenomenon of interest within the research is ‘transparently observable’ (Pettigrew, 1988) and provides the researcher with an opportunity for uncommon research access (Yin, 2003). It is important to note that a case organisation is not a case study. The case study is a particular phenomenon studied within an organisation. In this thesis, the case organisation is the land division of BAE Systems Plc and the case study is the UOR process that was followed during the recent UK military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. In particular, the UOR process is broken into two parts to form an embedded case study. First, the architecture of the asset is investigated to gain insight into the effect unexpected design changes have on the products architecture. Second, the use of the asset before and after the change is analysed to understand whether design changes absorb variety in use and
6 UK MoD UOR information can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/528625/DSPCR_C hapter_09_UOR_Procurement_Jun_16_Edn.pdf
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support the customer in the achievement of their outcomes (co-creation in context). These two aspects of the UOR process form two sub units of analysis, making it an embedded case study (Yin, 2003).
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Table 7.1. Overview of BAE Systems Plc – Land Division.
As discussed above, the particular case studied was the UORs required during the UKs military campaign in Afghanistan and Iraq during the period 2001-2014. Specifically, three of the organisation’s vehicles were chosen for this study as they
Case Organisation BAE Systems Plc – Land Division
Main Offerings
Armoured Fighting Vehicles, Armoured Personal Carriers, Main Battle Tanks, Engineering Support
Vehicles, Amphibious Combat Vehicles, Ammunition, Precision Munitions, Artillery Systems,
Missile Launchers.
Number of Vehicles in Service
4000+
Primary Purpose
To design, manufacture, upgrade and support their offerings whilst in service.
Procedures for Responding to Emergent Needs
Urgent Operational Requirements
UORs processed 200+
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were subject to a number of UORs during the two military campaigns discussed. Furthermore, they have been in service for over thirty years, have been deployed in environments for which they were not originally designed and they were designed under the designing for low variety frame. Thus, according to the literature review within this thesis, they are not suited to the contexts within which they found themselves in (i.e., those characterised by continuous change and where emphasis is placed on resource (re)configuration to support use and outcomes). This provides an opportunity to study both why the designing for low variety frame is not suitable for contexts characterised by continuous change and why designing for high variety has different requirements to designing for low variety within the context of the UOR process within two specific war zones. In each of the studies, the two main parts of the embedded case are addressed. These two aspects include (1) the architecture of the asset before and after each design change and (2) the customers’ context of use before and after each design change. These are developed further in the context of each study in chapters 8, 9 and 10. The three vehicles used within the study are shown in the following figures in their pre and post Afghanistan and Iraq states.
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Figure 7.2. BAE Systems Warrior pre (left) and post (right) the Afghanistan and Iraq
campaigns7.
Figure 7.3. BAE Systems CVR(T) pre (left) and post (right) the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns.
Figure 7.4. BAE Systems Bulldog pre (left) and post (right) the Iraq campaign.
The vehicles were already tied to a range of service contracts, such as spares and repairs contracts, but the UOR process added additional service activities revolving around design consultancy and in some cases, manufacturing of components.
7
The images used in figures 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 have been extracted from google images and can be found using the following search terms: ‘BAE Systems Warrior’; ‘BAE Systems CVR(T)’; ‘BAE Systems Bulldog’. Credit is given to the copyright holders of these images.
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However, manufacturing was usually outsourced to another organisation as specified by the MoD.
Moving forward, the organisation, in part driven by the customer, are investigating whether technology such as 3D printing can be used for resource (re)configuration and the creation of bespoke components on a mission-by-mission basis. This is representative of pursuing a product instance and incomplete product approach that emphasises designing for high variety. This form of value proposition would potentially form part of the organisations servitization strategy in the future. Furthermore, there is recognition that during wartime, which cannot be predicted when the vehicle is originally designed, vehicles will be subject to environments, threats and more generally different use contexts than those they were designed for. This results in a UOR being raised and functional design changes post- production of the asset taking place. Thus, this serves as an example of an organisation having to design for high variety and integrate resources to maximise resource density even after the product has been designed, produced and exchanged with the customer. However, as highlighted in the literature review, the organisation is using legacy vehicles that were designed for low variety as opposed to use and this may have repercussions for the organisation when satisfying UORs. As the organisation transitions toward higher level servitization contracts such as availability of platforms and outcome-based contracts and integrates 3D printing for resource (re)configuration into their portfolio, UORs are likely to become more common place and so it is important to understand the different requirements of
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designing for high variety and designing for low variety if they are to successfully design for high variety.
This case highlights a number of similarities between research and practice. First, both the literature and practice acknowledge the servitization transition. Second, they both highlight how organisations continue to use existing manufacturing techniques, tools and theories (designing for low variety) even when the context they are serving is characterised by constant change and high variety (where the UOR process represents high variety . Finally, both academia and practice recognise the enabling role of digital technologies in designing for high variety. Thus, this case aligns with the primary objective of this research and provides a novel case through which to develop theory for designing for high variety as a process of resource integration.