Joe Gavin, Former Director of Lunar Module Program at Grumman, Former President of Grumman

My Engineering Apollo class continues to have high-profile people that were involved with Apollo come in to speak. Joe Gavin worked on the Lunar Module (the thing that actually landed on the moon).

Joe Gavin's Biography

Notes:

Was in the Navy during WWII

After war, went to Grumman and was involved with jet airplanes

His team was successful with Apollo because they were well "calibrated" (i.e., they had worked together before and each person knew what the others were capable of)

Engineers can't be treated like commodities (i.e., not like bricklayers)

Deliverables are always due during major holidays :-)

Had standup meetings every morning for ears so people could identify dependences. Cut it to 3 days/week after things were running smoothly.

Grumman didn't believe in org charts

Employees, friends and family owned about 50% of Grumman stock

Started off using Pert charts to track everything related to the Lunar Module, but gave it up because it was too complicated.

4 people kept track of the schedule

It all worked because they had a group of people that had worked together before and respected each other

There is no such thing as a random failure

Take nothing for granted

If you are doing something novel, no one can come up with an accurate schedule or know what problems you'll encounter

With projects such as this, you need a bold leader