Consortium pools companies of all stripes to share expertise

NEWPORT NEWS

Even an operation as big as Northrop Grumman Corp.'s roughly 21,000-employee shipyard here can learn new lessons.

So the shipyard, the nation's sole builder of aircraft carriers, helped found a new group to help businesses in Hampton Roads and Richmond share information to become more competitive. As part of the Virginia Business Excellence Consortium, Northrop Grumman is learning from such companies as fellow member Capital One Financial Corp.

How Capital One coordinates information for credit card offers can help Northrop Grumman improve the flow of drawings from designers to the waterfront, said Matt Needy, Northrop

Grumman's director of process excellence strategy.

The consortium joins a number of similar groups across the country that focus on such issues as "lean" manufacturing, quality improvement and work-force development. It was established in January and now has 22 member companies, said Julie Johnson, the consortium's director. Other members range from Ukrop's Super Markets to Hampton Machine Shop Inc. She believes it is the first group of its kind in Virginia.

To encourage more companies to join, Northrop Grumman hosted an informational session Friday at its shipyard and offered a tour of the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush under construction at the yard. People representing about 30 prospective members came to hear an overview of the group and what it could offer.

Robert Hall, a professor emeritus of operations management at Indiana University, told the gathering that companies need to really open up and exchange ideas and knowledge for the consortium to be successful.

"If it doesn't get past being a club for top management, than it's not very effective," Hall said.

Annual fees for the group range from $400 to $1,500, depending on the number of employees a company has.

Needy said it can be more effective for Northrop Grumman to learn from a local company than to fly across the country to see another defense contractor. It takes less time and more people are able to see a different way of operating.

"I can take eight people to Hampton Machine before lunch," Needy said.

Gregory Richards, (757) 446-2599, gregory.richards@pilotonline.com