The Limits of Technology Transfer: Civil Systems at TRW, 1965–1975
The Limits of Technology Transfer: Civil Systems at TRW, 1965–1975
This chapter deals with why and how TRW, Inc., the Cleveland, Ohio-based automotive supplier and aerospace contractor, first branched into civil systems, expanded its efforts, and then shut them down. In the late 1990s, TRW ventured into “civil systems,” referring to a fast-growing business based on applying management expertise, software systems, and technological capabilities originally developed in the company’s work on defense programs in wholly different areas. The company manages similar big, complex programs for the Federal Aviation Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Energy, and other civilian government customers. As a result of such efforts, between 1986 and 1996 TRW’s aerospace businesses dramatically lessened their dependence on the U.S. Department of Defense from approximately 95 percent to about 65 percent of sales. The chapter also considers the lessons and conclusions TRW drew from the experience and the legacies that lingered on into the late 1990s.
Keywords: automotive supplier, aerospace contractor, TRW, civil systems, Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Department of Energy
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