Mervin Kelly (1894-1971)

 
       National academy of sciences
       A biographical memoir 
       of 
       Mervin Joe Kelly (1894─1971) 
       by John R. Pierce 
       copyright 1975 
       Mervin Joe Kelly (February 14, 1894─March 18, 1971)

creative technical management. 

As Frederick R. Kappel, former board chairman of AT&T said after
Kelly's death:
   "He was a great fellow for the Bell System. Mervin was
always and forever pushing the operating management, and the
heads of AT&T as well, to get on with new things. His aggres-
siveness got him in a lot of hot arguments, but I always sat back
and said, 'Give it to them, Mervin, that's what we need.' Every
place needs a fireball or spark plug, and he was it."

Others were less disturbed by Kelly's temper. Estill Green
describes his experience as vice president in charge of systems
engineering in these mellow words:
   "A few years in close association with Mervin were the hap-
piest time of my life. For years on end I had believed I needed
insulation from the high voltage. Yet when I was directly ex-
posed to it, I never experienced a serious shock, and I rejoiced
to observe how the high potential overpowered inertia and loose
thinking and prejudice.
   "I learned never to oppose him when he had the bit in his
teeth. Next morning I could remark casually, 'Mervin, there
are some aspects of that matter discussed in yesterday's confer-
ence that you may not be fully aware of.' He would listen, and
generally modify his position, to a minor or sometimes major
extent."

In 1943 Kelly outlined a branch-laboratory concept. This
eventually led to the establishment of laboratories for final
development at manufacturing locations of Western Electric.
This proved important in several ways. It linked final develop-
ment and its procedures and personnel closely to those respon-
sible for the manufacture of new devices and systems. It pre-
vented too large a concentration of personnel in a few central
locations. It gave a desirable measure of responsibility and
independence to work in various well-defined fields of devel-
opment.


While Kelly recognized basic research as the source of all
technological advances, he understood that a complicated tech-
nological process lies between discovery and use. He wrote:
   "There has been so much emphasis on industrial research
and mass-production methods in my country, that even our
well-informed public is not sufficiently aware of the necessary
and most important chain of events that lies between the initial
step of basic research and the terminal operation of manufac-
ture. In order to stress the continuity of procedures from re-
search to engineering of product into manufacture and to
emphasize their real unity, I speak of them as the single entity
'organized creative technology'."

   Using the Bell Laboratories as an example of organized tech-
nology, Kelly delineated three areas that preceded the manu-
facture of complicated technological systems:
   "The first includes all of the research and fundamental
development. This is our non-scheduled area of work. It pro-
vides the reservoir of completely new knowledge, principles,
materials, methods, and art that are essential for the develop-
ment of new communications systems and facilities.
    "The second we call 'systems engineering'. Its major respon-
sibility is the determination of the new specific systems and
facilities development projects—their operational and economic
objectives and the broad technical plan to be followed. 'Systems
engineering' controls and guides the use of the new knowledge
obtained from the research and fundamental development pro-
grams in the creation of new telephone services and the im-
provement and lowering of cost of services already established.
   "The third encompasses all specific development and design
of new systems and facilities. The work is most carefully pro-
grammed in conformity with the plan established by the systems
engineering studies. Our research and fundamental develop-
ment programs supply the new knowledge required in meeting
the objectives of the new specific devleopments."

   Concerning Systems Engineering, Kelly said:
   "Approximately 10% of our scientific and technical staff are
allotted to systems engineering. Its staff members must supply
a proper blending of competence and background in each of
the three areas that it contacts: research and fundamental devel-
opment, specific systems and facilities development, and opera-
tions. It is therefore, largely made up of men drawn from these
areas who have exhibited unusual talents in analysis and the
objectivity so essential to their appraisal responsibility."

   Kelly illustrated an ideal relation between systems engi-
neering, research and development by the case of the NIKE
antiaircraft missile:
   "For example, the programming study on the NIKE missile
system established that basic knowledge and art were available
for the development of a system that would meet the service
requirements except for a particular area of radar technology.
This area was at once subjected to a research and exploratory
development attack. The project was not undertaken until this
deficiency was eliminated by new knowledge from research.
The NIKE missile system now in production meets the require-
ments initially agreed upon and in its technical character is in
close correspondence with the plan of the initial study.
   "I am familiar with large military systems developments
where this approach is absent, where research and exploration
are intermingled with specific development, probably with the
intent of gaining time. Actually, time has been lost."

   Kelly goes on to say that development, while a continuous
operation, is done in three distinct stages: first the laboratory
model; after tests and modifications, the preproduction model,
which is field tested; and finally, the final design for manufac-
ture (by Western Electric).

   Above all, a technological organization must have the lead-
ership to see and pursue real opportunities and real needs. In
an address to a naval research conference, Kelly said:
   "The first, and perhaps the most important, factor is the
program itself. What shall it contain? What can be discarded
at once, and what shall be eliminated after limited exploration?
How can comprehensive coverage with freedom from gaps be
assured? In an endeavor so broad in scope and requiring such
a highly functional organization for its operation, how can
unneeded duplication be prevented, and duplication that is
worthwhile, though usually small in volume, be provided?"

Leaders or 
managers must be technologically trained and technologically
competent. Only thus can decisions be based on insight and
understanding rather than on salesmanship and hearsay. 


source:
       National academy of sciences
       A biographical memoir 
       of 
       Mervin Joe Kelly (1894─1971) 
       by John R. Pierce 
       copyright 1975 
       Mervin Joe Kelly (February 14, 1894─March 18, 1971)
·‘’•─“”
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