2009 Issue 1 - Raytheon

Feature Innovation at Raytheon
Continued from page 5
universities are the vanguard of basic and
applied research in the United States and
abroad. The objectives of this program are
to strategically align Raytheon technology
road maps and university research, sponsor
targeted advancements in core and adjacent
markets, and implement a disciplined
process for leveraging investments to
enable growth. The University Program also
operates in conjunction with other
Raytheon university activities to build relationships
and provide assistance to our college
recruiting program.
Small Business Collaboration
Programs – Raytheon is working to find,
nurture and leverage technologies being
developed by small businesses. Two programs
that foster this collaboration are the
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
and pilot Mentor-Protégé Program. The
SBIR program is a federal program that
funds small businesses to conduct research
and development of new and emerging
technology. These programs enable
Raytheon to utilize small-business capability
to develop key technologies while establishing
long-term relationships with small businesses
and strengthening relationships with
our customers. The U.S. Dept. of Defense
pilot Mentor-Protégé Program is designed
to provide small disadvantaged businesses
with technical and developmental assistance
from large businesses.
Innovation Organizations –
Organizations have been chartered across
Raytheon with identifying and developing
innovative products and business models.
Five such organizations are currently executing
in Raytheon, and each has demonstrated
results with a slightly different approach
to innovation.
Mission Innovation
Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems’
Mission Innovation (MI) group provides an
excellent example of far forward-looking
innovation applied to compelling issues
threatening our world: global warming,
renewable energy, biological diversity
protection, world health, education, and
civil defense. Using a dedicated group of
innovators, MI applies the company’s
6 2009 ISSUE 1 RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGY TODAY
technologies and capabilities beyond the
core businesses. Not constrained to our current
products or technologies, MI broadly
partners with universities or other businesses
to create valuable solutions.
The Bike Shop
The Bike Shop at Raytheon Missile Systems
houses a world-class capability to rapidly
develop solutions and prototypes, drawing
on a skilled, passionate small team of people
who ignore the time clock and do
whatever it takes to fulfill the customer’s
needs — and fulfill them now.
The Bike Shop starts all projects with a
brainstorming session — its Envision
phase — to understand the real problem.
Once a workable solution to a problem is
envisioned, The Bike Shop assembles the
smallest possible team to execute the
effort: This is the Create phase of
their process.
The result of the final phase — Accomplish
— is a product of the intent and scope of
the work. The Bike Shop delivers two
primary products: special testing setups
and services for existing programs, and
prototype systems.
Rapid Initiatives Group
Within Raytheon Network Centric Systems,
the Rapid Initiatives Group provides the
mechanisms to tap into the broad, distributed
capabilities of the business. Established
to quickly address customer needs, it maintains
an experienced staff of program leaders
and a network of connections to the
engineering and functional units.
Using proven processes, the RIG can rapidly
marshal resources to meet a customer need.
All functions — business development,
contracts, finance, operations and
engineering — rapidly converge on a
viable approach to offer a solution to
the customer.
The ability to convert concepts and ideas to
contracted solutions provides strong benefits
to customers.
Office of Innovation
Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems
established an Office of Innovation to foster
a culture of innovation across all employees
and leverage ideas into new business. The
dedicated staff provides focus, creating a
connect point for anyone with an idea or a
problem needing a solution. Four systems
gather and develop ideas into business
value: Originator Assisted, Innovation
Centers, Innovation Challenge, and
Distributed Think Tank.
Innovation Day
In November 2008, Raytheon Intelligence
and Information Systems (IIS) held its first
“Innovation Day.” The event took place at
nine sites and showcased the best of the
business’s technology and innovation.
Innovation Day also included the first IIS
Innovator of the Year Award.
Five IIS projects received funding during
2008 under Raytheon’s IDEA program:
Helibuoy Prototype
Capture HPC for Malware Analysis
Stealth Modulation
Fast, Unsupervised Hyperspectral Imagery
Exploitation
Swarm Intelligence for Knowledge
Extraction
In 2009, IIS will begin implementing its own
IDEA program, using the tools from the corporate
program to help uncover more innovative
ideas from within the business.
Summary
Raytheon’s world-class innovation systems
continue to pump technology, products,
and customer solutions, creating value for
our stakeholders. The breadth and richness
of the systems that allow each business
and each individual to find novel, valued
solutions are unique.
Innovation is important to individuals as
well as to the company’s business growth.
Innovation kindles a special engineering
spirit: With a can-do attitude, nothing is
really impossible.
This edition of Technology Today describes
some of our innovations and the systems
used to produced them. We hope that the
examples provided will give you a glimpse
into the types of exciting work we do.
Bill Kiczuk
kiczuk@raytheon.com