Challenges in the Better, Faster, Cheaper Era of Aeronautical Design, Engineering and Manufacturing

“Better, Faster, Cheaper” (BFC) emerged in the 1990s as a new paradigm for aerospace products. In this paper, we examine some of the underlying reasons for BFC and offer some thoughts to help frame the thinking and action of aerospace industry professionals in this new era. Examination of literature on industrial innovation indicates that aeronautical products have evolved to a “dominant design” and entered the “specific phase” of their product life cycle. Innovation in this phase centers on: incremental product improvement, especially for productivity and quality; process technology; technological innovations that offer superior substitutes. The first two of these are aligned with BFC objectives

On agile metrics for operations management: measuring and aligning agility with operational excellence

High-quality performance in Operations Management has been measured through different Excellence frameworks, with special emphasis on Operational Excellence models. By allowing to track performance indicators, identify improvement opportunities, and tackle operational limitations, such frameworks have proven their validity throughout the years. However, and despite their history of success, these frameworks remain based on almost the same principles and criteria that were defined when they were first being established, more than three decades ago. As change becomes central to the life of organizations, the ability to reconfigure operations becomes vital for success. However, the current takes on Operational Excellence do not consider the ability to change in their assessments. In a marketplace in transformation, this is perceived as a limitation and draws criticism to Excellence frameworks. In the face of this gap, we develop, deploy and analyze the results obtained by an Organizational Agility assessment framework that is aligned with Excellence in Operations Management. This paper presents this process and highlights the main results of bringing Organizational Agility together with Operational Excellence in the measurement and pursuit of superior operational performance.This work has been supported by national funds through FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2019, as well as by PhD grant PD/BD/114149/2016

Teaching Lean Thinking Principles Through Hands-on Simulations

The teaching of Lean Enterprise Thinking in the aerospace context requires that students understand a complex subject—aerospace enterprises and their transformation—in a deep and intuitive way. Without this context, the lessons of the LAI Lean Academy Course® will make little sense. A rich simulation of an enterprise with a structure and problems typical of the US aerospace industry is used as a teaching tool. The simulation allows students to understand Lean Thinking at an intuitive level, and practice lean tools in a realistic setting. The simulation enables a CDIO approach (in this case, Comprehend, Design, Implement and Operate), by having the students take two iterations through a CDIO process to transform the simulated enterprise from an inefficient legacy state to a high performance future state (x3 to x6 production using the same resources). The simulation and its teaching goals are described, with reference to the limited literature on simulations in education. The process used in the simulation is then described in a CDIO context. Finally, the success of the simulation is evaluated using limited quantitative and more extensive qualitative data. It is found that the simulation is a powerful learning tool and a key component of the LAI Lean Academy

bridging the gap between quality and adaptability

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupOperational Excellence (OpEx) is understood by the quest to continuously improve performance. While used by organizations worldwide, the capacity of OpEx programmes to make organizations successful in unstable business environments has been challenged. This article aims to answer the research question of what the nature of the relationship between OpEx and Organizational Agility truly is. The authors have previously proposed a theoretical framework supporting the link between Operational Excellence, Organizational Culture, and Organizational Agility. While built on a strong conceptual background, this framework lacked empirical validation. Following the conclusion of ten industrial case studies, this article provides a summary of the key findings obtained in each case and integrates them into an updated conceptual model. As key findings, this study shows how Operational Excellence enablers and cultural orientation have an important role in the development and scaling up of Organizational Agility capabilities, highlighting how different contexts may influence these dynamics. This article offers a better understanding of the balance needed to maintain high operational performance levels while dealing with change. It connects and upholds the importance of Organizational Agility and of the cultural paradigm in the management of Quality in technical and technological organizations.publishersversionpublishe

EXPERIENCIA ESTÉTICA DESPUÉS DE ADORNO. REFLEXIONES EN TORNO A WELLMER, BERTRAM Y REBENTISCH*

RESUMEN Este artículo dialoga con tres importantes reflexiones estéticas procedentes de la filosofía alemana contemporánea. En primer lugar, se ocupa del trabajo de Albrecht Wellmer, representante de la “segunda generación de la Teoría Crítica”; en segundo lugar, se refiere al abordaje del actual profesor de estética en Berlín, Georg W. Bertram; y, en última instancia, indaga los aportes de Juliane Rebentisch, coeditora de la nueva versión de la Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung. Si bien los planteos de estos autores presentan matices diversos, todos ellos son, de uno u otro modo, herederos de un incisivo proceso de reconsideración crítica de la teoría estética de Theodor W. Adorno que viene desarrollándose desde los años setenta. La intención del artículo es reconstruir la modalidad de crítica planteada por estos tres autores y explorar a partir de ello algunas líneas de desarrollo para un estética postadorniana

Aesthetic Freedom and Democratic Ethical Life: A Hegelian Account of the Relationship between Aesthetics and Democratic Politics

This paper presents a novel Hegelian view of the relationship between aesthetics and democratic politics. My account avoids the drawbacks associated with approaches that (like Rancière’s) reconceive all of the political in aesthetic terms or (like Rockhill’s) reduce the aesthetic to art. Instead, I maintain that the aesthetic is best understood as a distinct relationship of individual freedom. My argument proceeds by highlighting shortcomings of Honneth’s account of democratic Sittlichkeit and then addressing these impasses by integrating aesthetic freedom into the picture. The first two steps of my argument concern the fact that the form of life outlined by Honneth aspires to be a form of free life, yet his account of democratic Sittlichkeit gives rise to two dimensions of unfreedom. The first problem of unfreedom pertains to the scope of freedom. The relationships of freedom incorporated into Honneth’s account fail to turn given social roles into the subject matter of a sufficiently unrestricted practice of freedom. The second problem of freedom concerns conformism. In a final step, I complete my argument that Honneth’s account is unsatisfactory and incomplete by showing that aesthetic freedom is socially valid and thus ought to form part of our accounts of democratic ethical life

Abstract Paper to Appear in The Aeronautical Journal CHALLENGES IN THE BETTER, FASTER, CHEAPER ERA OF AERONAUTICAL DESIGN, ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING

the 1990s as a new paradigm for aerospace products. In this paper, we examine some of the underlying reasons for BFC and offer some thoughts to help frame the thinking and action of aerospace industry professionals in this new era. Examination of literature on industrial innovation indicates that aeronautical products have evolved to a “dominant design ” and entered the “specific phase ” of their product life cycle. Innovation in this phase centers on: incremental product improvement, especially for productivity and quality; process technology; technological innovations that offer superior substitutes. The first two of these are aligned with BFC objectives. The concepts of “value ” and “best lifecycle value ” are introduced as conceptual frameworks. Value is offered as a metric for BFC. Risk management is intimately tied to achieving value and needs to be integrated into aeronautical processes. The process technology area is addressed by considering “lean” practices for design, engineering and manufacturing. Illustrative results of process improvements from the seven-year Lean Aerospace Initiative research program at MIT indicate opportunities to achieve BFC. Concluding remarks offer some challenges to industry, government and academics i