Global Supply Chain Northrop Grumman has an end-to-end global supply chain meaning that they are present from the design of the product to the shipment of the final product to the customer and all the layers in between. Partnering with suppliers that believe in the vision of the product will help in the costs of the product and getting all the necessary components for it to be completed. According to PR Newswire, “more than 35 percent of Northrop Grumman procurement spending goes to small, women or minority-owned firms”. This shows their continued support for small businesses because they know that they are what help drive the economy forward. Although Northrop Grumman is supporting business in the United States they also have to continue …show more content…
Instead of Northrop Grumman purchasing this equipment, the customer can provide them with that set of equipment in order to get the job done. This equipment that is provided to Northrop Grumman by the customer can be used to do other jobs depending on how general it is. Although some equipment can be used for other things doesn’t mean Northrop Grumman has ownership of the property to do what they want with it. They need to get proper authorization from the customer that provides the equipment in order to do jobs other than what they are producing for that customer. This is where the property management and contracts department from the mission systems sector comes in. Without proper management of the equipment that is provided, Northrop Grumman can get into a lot of trouble for using it without getting necessary authorization by the organization supplying the equipment. Conflicts of interest can arise when Northrop Grumman has a product that it sells to not only the United States government, but governments in other countries or for commercial use. This happens because if the United States government is supplying equipment for their project, but a similar project is being done for a country other than the United States, the United States would probably not authorize the equipment to be used other than for the project they need done. This would provide the United States government with a competitive advantage over the other country. In an interview with one of Northrop Grumman’s Government Property Managers, Ty Martin says that this process applies to areas inside the United States government as well as outside organizations (Interview). For example, if the United States Airforce and United States Navy have a similar product that Northrop Grumman is producing, however, the piece of test equipment used for this product