Evolution of the Lean Enterprise System: A Critical Synthesis and Agenda for the Future

Many aerospace enterprises and other organizations have adopted a variety of management approaches to achieve continuous process improvement, enterprise change and transformation, such as the lean enterprise system, total quality management (TQM), theory of constraints (TOC), agile manufacturing, and business process reengineering (BPR). Among them, the lean enterprise system, with its origins in the Toyota Production System (TPS), comes closest to providing a holistic view of enterprises as complex socio-technical systems embodying a mutually supportive set of precepts and practices driving enterprise operations at all levels (i.e., strategic, tactical, operational) and throughout the enterprise value stream encompassing both upstream supplier networks and downstream customerfocused activities. Lean enterprise principles and practices have evolved over many decades through a process of experimentation, learning and adaptation. A distinction is made between the basic lean enterprise system (BLES), capturing salient developments over the period between the late 1940s and mid-1990s, and the contemporary lean enterprise system (CLES), capturing major conceptual and implementation-related extensions of the basic model since the mid-1990s. The lean enterprise system, as a viable framework for explaining the structure and dynamics of modern networked enterprises, for managing them, and for improving their performance through either continuous process improvement or planned systemic change and transformation, remains a work-in-progress

Towards an Integration of the Lean Enterprise System, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma and Related Enterprise Process Improvement Methods

The lean enterprise system, total quality management, six sigma, theory of constraints, agile manufacturing, and business process reengineering have been introduced as universally applicable best methods to improve the performance of enterprise operations through continuous process improvement and systemic planned enterprise change. Generally speaking, they represent practice-based, rather than theory-grounded, methods with common roots in manufacturing. Most of the literature on them is descriptive and prescriptive, aimed largely at a practitioner audience. Despite certain differences among them, they potentially complement each other in important ways. The lean enterprise system, total quality management and six sigma, in particular, are tightly interconnected as highly complementary approaches and can be brought together to define a first-approximation “core” integrated management system, with the lean enterprise system serving as the central organizing framework. Specific elements of the other approaches can be selectively incorporated into the “core” enterprise system to enrich its effectiveness. Concrete theoretical and computational developments in the future through an interdisciplinary research agenda centered on the design and development of networked enterprises as complex adaptive socio-technical systems, as well as the creation of a readily accessible observatory of evidence-based management practices, would represent important steps forward

Studies on the structure of input-output models for national, regional, and multi-regional economic analysis.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. Thesis. 1969. Ph.D.Vita.Bibliography: leaves 425-444.Ph.D

Knowledge Ingtegration in Large-Scale Organizations and Networks - Conceptual Overview and Operational Definition

Knowledge integration is an emerging discipline in organizational science where the central proposition is that the increasing complexity of products and services being developed and delivered, means that the knowledge required for production is increasingly specialized, varied (multi-disciplinary) and distributed across the organization’s internal boundaries, and as a result there is a need for organizations to continuously gather their knowledge resources in order to maintain their ability to innovate, and to sustain their competitive position in the market. In addition, the increasing scale and scope of organizational arrangements, such as multinational partnerships or multi-tiered prime-supplier arrangements commonly encountered in the aerospace, automotive and other complex product development industries, also give rise to environments of dispersed knowledge resources, thus necessitating the subsequent integration of this knowledge across external boundaries spanning large-scale organizational networks. Knowledge integration in this context is done through a process of transferring knowledge from multiple sources in the organizational network to where it is needed, combining it with existing knowledge, before it can be applied to accomplish complex tasks and to solve major problems. The primary purpose of this paper is to define the powerful concept of knowledge integration in large-scale organizational networks using an extensive review of the pertinent literature on knowledge in organizations. An operational definition for knowledge integration is also proposed, followed by a systematic identification and classification of the different strategies, practices, channels and mechanisms for integrating different types of knowledge across a multitude of organizational boundaries and environments

Metrics Pilot Project for Military Avionics Sustainment: Experimental Design and Implementation Plan

This working paper outlines the design of an experiment, employing a pilot project, for identifying and validating new metrics for managing the US Air Force military avionics sustainment system. The paper also presents a plan for implementing the pilot project. The experimental design allows for the quantitifation of the effects of the new metrics, while controlling for the effects of other factors impacting the observed outcomes. Underlying the pilot project, and the proposed experimental design, are three main hypotheses derived from earlier research: (a) currently used metrics foster local optimization rather than system-wide optimization; (b) they do not allow measures of progress towards the achievement of system-wide goals and objectives, and, hence, do not allow visibility into the impact of depot maintenance on the warfighter; and (c) they are driving the “wrong behavior,” causing suboptimal decisions governing maintenance and repair priorities and practices and, as a result, undermining the efficiency and effectiveness of the sustainment system, despite the fact that the Air Force sustainment system has a dedicated and highly skilled workforce supporting the warfighter

Taming the Business Cycles in Commercial Aviation: Trade-space analysis of strategic alternatives using simulation modeling

We investigate the effectiveness of strategic alternatives that are designed to dampen the cyclicality manifest in the commercial aviation related industries. The constituent enterprises of the commercial aviation system exhibit managerial and operational independence and have diverse value functions that often viewed the enterprises to view their competition as a zero-sum game. We argue that this need not always be the case; in the commercial aviation system both airline and airframe manufacturers constituents would benefit from a steadier influx of aircraft that counters the current situation that is characterized by relatively stable demand growth rate for air travel while airline profitability and aircraft ordering fluctuate intensely. In order to identify and evaluate the symbiotic potential, we use a system dynamics model of commercial aviation. After testing several individual strategic alternatives, we find that capacity management is key to cycle moderation for non-collusive strategies. Comparing faster aircraft deliveries to semi-fixed production schedules among other alternatives shows only the latter alternative to be Pareto efficient

Supplier Network part of the Lean Enterprise Self-Assessment Tool

This is an aggregated version of the full Supplier Management Self-Assessment Tool, which is presented separately, as an integrated component of the LAI Supplier Networks Transformation Toolset

Overview of LAI’s Suppliers Networks Transformation Toolset (Version 1.0)

This is a PowerPoint overview of LAI ‘s main supplier networks transformation toolset (Version 1.0) developed by LAI’s Supplier Networks Working Group. The toolset was finalized and issued in 2004, after an extensive alpha and beta testing process. It expands the earlier (1995) supplier networks framework. The toolset was “pulled” by a growing need expressed by the LAI consortium members for an integrated framework addressing the following types of questions: (a) what are the lean supply chain management concepts and practices; (b) how do we develop lean supplier networks; (c) how do we assess where we are in evolving lean supply chain management capabilities?  The toolset contains two major, integrated, components: Roadmap for Building Lean Supplier Networks (The Roadmap Tool), and Supplier Management Self-Assessment Tool. The Self-Assessment Tool has two versions: Version A is for the use of large system-integration enterprises as well as major suppliers. Version B, a condensed version of the main self-assessment tool, is developed for the use of smaller supplier organizations. An attachment to this PowerPoint overview document presents a listing of the pertinent LAI sponsored master’s and doctoral theses concentrating on various aspects of supply chain management, as well as pertinent LAI papers and publications, providing research support for the two components

Lean Supply Chain Now: Proposed Concept Demonstration Initiative – An Activity of the Lean Aerospace Initiative Supplier Networks Working Group

The aerospace supplier base is characterized by complex interfaces that represent a significant source of waste, delay and defects. This is seriously undermining the achievement of affordability targets in current acquisition programs and blocking the development of an agile logistics capability supporting the operational forces. There is, hence, an urgent need for fresh thinking and action, particularly in view of the imperative to deliver effects-based capabilities to the warfighters and to enhance the competitiveness of the U.S. aerospace industry. The objective is to develop and test a practical “change model” can be deployed by the aerospace community. The proposed effort would entail conducting a number of pilot projects that can serve as test-beds, providing not only a learning laboratory but also generating tangible benefits. The resulting product – structured methodology, best practices, and tools and techniques, training and educational materials – can be used by many organizations to pursue collaborative action, to validate their existing processes, and to deploy as needed in particular situations

Building Lean Supplier Networks (The Roadmap Tool)

This tool represents a "how-to" implementation guide that lays out a structured process for evolving lean supply chain management capabilities in order to build lean supplier networks. The Roadmap Tool is linked to the Transition-to-Lean Roadmap (TTL) at the enterprise level and follows a process architecture similar to that used in the TTL. It defines major building blocks and specific implementation steps. It also identifies key interactions and major feedback loops. In addition, the tool provides implementation aids ("Roadmap Explorations"). For example, for each major building block, it defines inputs, outputs, barriers, enablers, potential metrics, and tools and methods. At the same time, it discusses a number of issues and questions that are commonly faced in such an implementation effort (e.g., why, what, who, how, where, when) and identifies potential tensions or conflicts that can be anticipated and proactively addressed