Greg Maxwell
Vice President of Operations Strategy & Global Supply Chain, Northrop Grumman
Greg Maxwell’s team of supply chain professionals managed Northrop Grumman’s large and complex supply chain through unprecedented challenges over the past three years – inflation, long material lead times, electronics and raw material shortages, the “great resignation,” impacts of COVID-19, transportation bottlenecks and the external environment, to name a few.
“Through perseverance, discipline and expanding our supply chain best practices, we are positioning our supply chain to be a differentiator that is able to plan ahead and act fast to mitigate risks and adapt to changes in the market based on what we learned from COVID,” Maxwell said.
Mission Systems Sector Vice President of Operations Scott Crudele said Maxwell and the entire Northrop Grumman supply chain team is modernizing the company’s processes, tools and infrastructure to drive affordability, speed and resiliency.
“This will ensure we can deliver capabilities our customers need to respond to the complex and growing threat environment,” he said.
Why Watch
In 2023, Maxwell’s team is focused on strengthening the company’s supply chain base by partnering with suppliers to assess supply chain risks such as single sources, critical materials, supplier financial health and the external environment. The team members are also incorporating mitigation plans into their business acquisition process and connecting supply chain operations into the digital ecosystem where they design, build, test and collaborate with partners from what Maxwell describes as “a single source of truth, accelerating operations and increasing quality and speed of delivery to our customers.”
Finally, the team is seeking feedback from suppliers through a supplier advisory council and annual supplier survey to help them become the customer of choice for supply chain partners.
“I have been working in supply chain management for more than 20 years, and I have come to realize that supply chain management is a bit like the offensive line of a football team: if we do our jobs well, our team succeeds and Northrop Grumman delivers on our commitments in support of our customers’ missions, though our specific contributions may not be explicitly noticed,” Maxwell said. “However, if something goes wrong with supply chain management, the problem quickly becomes visible. The supply chain management function is a critical, if sometimes unseen, member of our broader team.”