Lean engineering in aerospace

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Engineering organizations participating in the design and development of complex aerospace products require a shift in culture to ensure that they respond to customer expectations for affordability and quality and to maintain long-term viability. Among the many approaches to engineering product development (PD) improvement, 'lean engineering' is of particular interest. The goal of this project is to apply lean principles to the design phase of the PD process. There are three overall research tasks whose specific objectives are to develop: a) models for correct sizing of design work packages; b) a model measuring PD performance; and c) tools for target costing and life-cycle costing. The research in project a) will model the value stream of the PD process and investigate how task size impacts work flow, throughput, and work in progress. Lean principles will be applied to improve flow and reduce cycle time by choosing appropriate task size at the different stages in the PD process. The goal is to achieve savings of 25% of the intellectual work in progress inherent in PD. Project b) will model the performance of PD in terms of the productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness required to direct efforts and resources, and to assess whether the anticipated improvements have materialized. PD performance is dependent on multiple criteria, including engineering job size, job type, risk level and scope, lead time, and rework. Project c) will develop a set of tools and techniques that will allow better design to cost. Lean principles will be applied to match costing with project and process objectives. Tools will be able to look at the design implications of life cycle costs, which include: design requirements, implementation, support, and continuous upgrades during product life. A closed-loop methodology will be developed that will model product function and target costs, and then address variances in order to bring design implementation in alignment with cost targets. Results from the research will be valuable to both the academic and industrial communities for the better management, understanding and implementation of lean principles for collaborative work and will accelerate the adoption of lean practices in the aerospace industry.