Von Braun’s Conversionй

Despite the imposition of systems engineering and configuration manage­ment on MSFC, they remained foreign concepts to members of Huntsville’s engineering family. They had been working together on rockets since the 1930s, and the many years of experience had taught them the technologies, processes, and interactions necessary to build rockets. These engineers under­stood rocketry and each other so well as to make formal coordination mecha­nisms such as systems engineering redundant. The efforts of Mueller and Phillips had brought configuration management and air force methods to contractors, but the functional, discipline-based laboratories remained the centers of power in MSFC.

As MSFC’s effort on the Apollo program peaked in 1966 and layoffs threat­ened, however, MSFC leaders realized that they would have to diversify be­yond rocketry to keep themselves in business.112 In new fields such as manned space stations and robotic spacecraft, MSFC’s unmatched ability in rockets meant little, and they soon found new utility in systems engineering.

By the summer of 1968, von Braun recognized that he needed to strengthen systems engineering at MSFC. He called in Philip Tompkins, a communi­cations expert from Wayne State University, to study MSFC’s organization and recommend how better to implement systems engineering. At the time,

Mueller was pressing von Braun to emphasize systems engineering in the design of the Skylab space station. Von Braun explained to Tompkins that Mueller, who had been trained in electrical engineering, thought more natu­rally in terms of a ‘‘nervous system’’ than he, who thought of rockets as ma­chines. Von Braun belatedly saw the validity of Mueller’s point of view and was determined to reorient MSFC along systems engineering lines so as to better coordinate MSFC’s design efforts.113

Tompkins investigated MSFC’s organization and soon concluded that the design laboratories were overly oriented toward ‘‘low-level subsystems engi­neering.’’ As one manager stated it, ‘‘If we had a lawnmower capability at the Marshall Center, we’d put lawnmowers on all the vehicles.’’114 To com­bat this, Tompkins recommended significant strengthening of the systems engineering office. With this change, systems engineering by late 1968 be­came a much stronger element within MSFC, albeit weaker in the traditional rocket groups than the newer organizations that focused on other projects. As MSFC’s ‘‘family’’ organization and expertise in rocketry grew less important, systems engineering took their place. Formal coordination processes replaced the informal methods that sufficed in von Braun’s heyday.

Why did NASA’s most experienced group of engineers take so long to em­brace systems engineering? Three factors contributed: the almost exclusive use of in-house capability for rocket development and testing, the extraordi­nary continuity of von Braun’s team, and the continuity of the team’s R&D project. From the mid-1950s until the early 1960s, von Braun’s team members relied upon their own capabilities to design rockets, using external contrac­tors sparingly. When they did use contractors, they did so for only specific components, or they closely monitored the contractors, such as Chrysler for the Redstone and Jupiter. The use of contractors significantly increased for the Saturn V project, and systems engineering began to make inroads into MSFC at this time. However, not until MSFC diversified out of rocketry and many of the original team began to retire in the late 1960s did systems engineering become a major element of Marshall’s R&D process.

The continuity of von Braun’s team, along with the continuity of the tech­nologies upon which the team worked, helps to explain the dismissal of sys­tems engineering at MSFC. Simply put, when each team member knew the job through decades of experience and knew every other team member over that period, formal methods to communicate or coordinate were redundant. Rocket team members knew their jobs, and each other, intimately. They un­derstood what information their colleagues needed, and when. When they began to work on new products such as space stations and spacecraft in the late 1960s, it was no longer obvious how each team member should communi­cate with everyone else. Formal task planning, coordination, and communi­cation became a necessity, and systems engineers performed these new tasks.

Conclusion

Systems management evolved as the manned space programs developed. Like the ballistic missile programs before them, the manned programs were in­augurated with few cost constraints and substantial external pressure to speed development. Despite massive cost overruns, the programs continued for the first few years with few questions from headquarters or Congress. Glennan, and later Webb, let the STG, MSC, and MSFC do their jobs with minimal supervision. These organizations used informal engineering committees to manage the manned programs. When NASA needed rigor in manufactur­ing and component quality, it had the air force and its industrial contractors to supply them. Informal methods frequently produced technical success but failed miserably at predicting costs.

Spiraling costs led Holmes, the first head of OMSF, to challenge Webb. Holmes’s failure made it obvious to his replacement, Mueller, that he had to control costs. To do so he enlisted the help of air force officers, led by Phillips. Mueller forced MSC and MSFC to adopt stronger project management, in­stitute systems engineering, expand ground testing, and report more thor­oughly to headquarters. Phillips instituted configuration management and project reviews throughout Apollo to control technical, financial, and con­tractual aspects as well as the scheduling of the program. Air force officers brought in by Mueller and Phillips propagated the reforms and transformed OMSF’s organizations into project-oriented hierarchical development orga­nizations.

Systems management made development costs more predictable and cre­ated technically reliable product, but at a price. The disadvantages of systems management would become apparent later, but for the moment it was a mana­gerial icon. If there was a secret to Apollo, it was Phillips’s organizational re­forms, which transferred air force methods to NASA, superimposed upon the technical excellence of STG and MSFC engineers. Europeans would eventu­ally make a concerted effort to learn the managerial secrets of Apollo, but not before trying their own ideas, and failing miserably.

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