Timothy “TJ” Zitkevitz ( COTS HW/SW and Material Obsolescence Lead Obsolescence Management & Modeling Group, Lockheed Martin RMS Global Sustainment) rounds out the brain trust by showing a profoundly different way to plan for lifecycle sustainment. By expanding our planning horizons to be the expected end-of-life of the system and maintaining the necessary management tools, programs can quickly and routinely replan based on ever-changing conditions. He also posits some pragmatic (and lofty) suggestions to overcome various challenges preventing long-term planning.

Sustainment Symposium 2020 hosted by GDCA is a special virtual symposium focused on the journey from obsolescence management to legacy sustainment. In this symposium, we pull together leading minds across the DoD supply chain highlighting their relevant sustainment experiences and exploring what could happen when we begin to focus on sustainment as the objective.

Timothy Zitkevitz is the obsolescence management expert within Lockheed Martin’s Rotary and Mission Systems business area. He has over 19 years of experience in systems engineering, obsolescence management, sustainment engineering, and project management. He is the lead obsolescence management engineer within the Obsolescence Management and Modeling group that actively treats obsolescence management risk on 53 programs across Lockheed Martin. He has pioneered the creation of an in-house obsolescence management tool that integrates a complete system Bill of Material that includes hardware, software, and materials.