The fuel keeping these projects running smoothly is a new extranet. Two years in the making, the extranet functions as a mandatory procurement site for LMMFC’s top 20 suppliers, a document repository and an approval-process workflow engine.

For its role in collaboration, supplier management and business-to-business e-commerce, this extranet project earns runner-up status in Network World’s 2000 User Excellence Award competition.

Prior to the extranet, the production cycle of programs such as the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, Multiple Rocket Launch System and Line-Of-Site Anti-Tank Missile took up to two years. Today, new missile projects can take as little as one year.

"The stuff we do in our world is not Toys ‘R’ Us, and it’s not dot-com-type stuff. It is very highly sophisticated defense systems," says Bob Proffitt, manager of continuous improvement at LMMFC.

The extranet speeds the process by eliminating, for instance, the need for overnight mailings among offices. Having to send materials overnight resulted in a week of downtime for every month of production.

While LMMFC would not reveal exact costs and return-on-investment information, Chuck Barnard, the LMMFC manager who oversees the extranet, estimates that it saves the company as much as 75% on travel. This while gaining instantaneous communications between suppliers and LMMFC employees. For instance, on one project that began earlier this year, 50 employees at the company’s main facility in Dallas worked via the extranet with three other sites – without any travel to date.

The extranet has also made it much easier to deal with complex bidding and payment processes. In the past, one purchase order would generate a three-inch thick binder crammed with descriptions of the part and approval notices. But, in an extranet pilot program with two subcontractors, that process has become paperless, Barnard says.

The extranet is based on NexPrise’s ipTeam collaboration software running over Windows NT on a Compaq ProLiant ML530 server with 2G bytes of memory and a 64G-byte hard drive. Remote users must have a minimum of a 33.3K-bit/sec connection to the extranet server. LMMFC is currently integrating the extranet with a project data management system and its enterprise resource planning system.

At the beginning stages of a missile program, LMMFC uses the extranet for processing requests for quotes and purchase orders, and as a document repository. As the missile program progresses, the extranet updates those stored documents and routes specifications through the approvals process.

The ipTeam software also performs "gatekeeping" functions, such as building user profiles and assigning or rejecting team members, Proffitt notes. (Authorization is required for participation in missile programs).

The extranet has also passed muster on the rigorous Internet security regulations held by the defense industry.

"It’s hard to get the Department of Defense, or Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, the suppliers, the customers, or anybody to say, ‘I am willing to put my technical data package out on a server somewhere and trust that it’s protected.’ But we believe we’ve got that tool," Proffitt says.

Extranet access is controlled by user name and password authentication, and all communications are protected by 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer encryption. LMMFC maintains the extranet servers in a "demilitarized zone" sitting between its firewall and the Internet. In addition, LMMFC manages installations of NexPrise ipTeam at subcontractors’ facilities.

The effort is worth it, LMMFC executives say. Proffitt’s group is so pleased, it has recommended that similar extranets be built in all Lockheed-Martin divisions.

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