The Institute for Defense and Business (IDB) will be conducting the fourth offering of its Life Cycle Executive Leadership Program (LCELP), July 18-23, 2010 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The IDB partnered with the Schools of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and North Carolina A&T State University (NC A&T) to develop this course focused on the business aspects of managing products and system life cycles. This week-long course is designed to educate military and industry leaders about the business aspects of life cycle management.

During the course, participants will learn about the following:

• Life cycle approaches to systems design and improvement;
• Concurrent engineering and design for sustainment;
• Capability-driven strategy;
• Investment in life cycle approaches;
• Disruptive technology and organizational innovations;
• Leadership for change;
• Reducing life cycle costs in the supply chain; and
• Best-practice case studies in reducing the total cost of ownership.

A featured speaker for the upcoming LCELP program, Admiral James Loy, USCG (Ret.) former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard; currently Senior Counselor, The Cohen Group, stated the importance of life cycle management:

"The post 9/11 security environment challenges us as public or private leaders in ways we never considered ten years ago. While we continue to learn and try to understand that new environment, the staples of life-long learning and life cycle management stay on as personal and organizational mandates that serve us well as the new skills demanded by the new challenges and threats become clear. Public/private partnerships, inter-agency teams and multi-cabinet level efforts will demand collaboration skills and information sharing skills between and among players who might never have gotten together before 9/11."

The target audience for this program is program managers, logistics support managers, production managers, and systems integrators (O-4 to O-6 for uniformed military and GS-13 to GS-15 for civilians), as well as comparable private sector executives and managers. The program is designed for both engineers and non-engineers interested in developing a deeper understanding of life cycle theories, practices, and techniques.

Participants from past course offerings have represented the following organizations:

• Private Sector: AM General, BAE Systems, The Boeing Company, Calibre Systems, Caterpillar Logistics Services, Concurrent Technologies Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, IBM, K-3 Enterprises, Lockheed Martin Corporation and Robbins-Gioia, LLC;
• Military/Department of Defense: Defense Acquisition University, Defense Logistics Agency, U.S. Army (Red River Army Depot, Tobyhanna Army Depot, G-4, Forces Command, Logistics Innovation Agency), U.S. Air Force (Air Force Medical Operations Agency), U.S. Marine Corps (Marine Corps Systems Command, Total Life Cycle Management Office) and the U.S. Navy (Naval Supply Systems Command, Naval Air Systems Command); as well as
• Department of Homeland Security: Department of Homeland Security Headquarters, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Science and Technology Directorate, Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.