Digital Transformation Community Thought Leader Interview: Don Kinard, Lockheed Martin

November 2022

IRI’s Lee Green speaks with Dr. Don Kinard, Senior Fellow, Production Operations, at Lockheed Martin. The focus of their discussion on digital twins covered:

• The definition of digital twins;
• Case studies at Lockheed Martin;
• How to build trust in digital twins and their capabilities;
• The creation and maintenance of the infrastructure needed for effective digital twins, especially in legacy companies; and
• How to maintain cybersecurity while using digital twins. 

For reference: Please use the following link to access the maturity model used at Lockheed Martin which is discussed in the podcast:

https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2021/visualizing-the-digital-thread-and-digital-twins.html

Dr. Don Kinard is a Senior Fellow for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Production Operations and has been with LM for 38 years.  Don supports Digital Transformation as well as programs such as F-35.  Prior to his current assignment he was lead for F-35 production rate transition and earlier the Director of F-35 Production Engineering responsible for Joint Strike Fighter Tooling, Planning, Manufacturing Engineering, and Aircraft Systems Testing.  Before joining F-35 in 2004 Dr. Kinard held various positions in both Engineering and Manufacturing during his 18 years on the F-22. Don is the lead for the LM Corporate Strategic Technology Advisory program for Advanced Manufacturing as well as the Manufacturing Fellow’s team whose objectives are to develop and share engineering, manufacturing, and sustainment technologies throughout all of the LM business units.   His technical interests include materials and structures, digital thread/twin integration, digital transformation, Industry 4.0, manufacturing technology, manufacturing system design, and production management.