Lockheed suppliers collaborate in jet-fighter extranet

Using technology, Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems is bringing together suppliers and partners for its new Joint Strike Fighter program.

Lockheed is the leading manufacturer of military aircraft, including the F-16 and F-22 fighter jets. In building a new Joint Strike fighter, Lockheed wanted to coordinate the proposal process with its key partners and suppliers worldwide.

In this phase, Lockheed wanted to collaborate and share product development knowledge with its partners, while simultaneously automating many of the proposal tasks. Lockheed chose Open Text's Livelink document and knowledge sharing application to coordinate the proposal phase of this project.

Using Livelink, Lockheed will collect design information for developing manufacturing concepts for the new Joint Strike Fighter aircraft from suppliers and partners around the world.

Security was a major issue, given the highly sensitive nature of the Strike Fighter proposal, considered the biggest defense procurement into the next century. Livelink will enable users to see only those documents relevant to their part of the project.

Lockheed plans to have thousands of users on its extranet in the next month, with new users gaining access every day, according to Graham Rutherford, Integrated Product Team Leader of Data Management for the Joint Strike Fighter program. The number will grow "exponentially" as a workflow process is incorporated into the Engineering and Manufacturing Design phase of the program