USAF Meeting With MIT To Develop 'Lean' Acquisition Process
Source: Aviation Week
09/16/2005 09:38:32 AM
By Jefferson Morris
Late this month the Air Force will meet with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., to discuss how "lean" industry principles can be applied to the service's acquisition process.
The goal is to create a "value stream map" of the Air Force's entire acquisition enterprise. Value Stream Mapping involves drawing a visual representation of every process in a manufacturing line to identify and eliminate sources of waste.
"What the MIT people do is provide the tools and the knowledge to help guide the process of creating a value stream map, and they will act as facilitators and work with the Air Force people to create that map," said Bill McDaniel, director of communications for the Lean Aerospace Initiative. The first meeting will take place Sept. 27. Particular scrutiny will be placed on the "seams" between organizations within Air Force acquisition, where waste and delay often occur, said McDaniel, who met with The DAILY and affiliate Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine.
LAI is a partnership between the Air Force, MIT and industry to develop and apply lean manufacturing principles. LAI began in 1993 when the Air Force asked MIT researchers if it was possible to apply the efficient manufacturing practices of the automobile industry to military aircraft production.
LAI is focused on reducing cost, human effort, engineering hours, time and materials to make manufacturing as waste-free as possible, McDaniel said. The 22 industry consortium members, which include most of the major aerospace contractors, draw on lean manufacturing research performed at MIT and adapt it to their own production lines.
Success stories
The Air Force contributes about $2.5 million dollars annually to LAI, with industry kicking in nearly the same amount. The application of LAI-developed tools to five projects - engine testing at Arnold Engineering and Development Center, F-16 contract closeout, F/A-22 flight-testing, Global Hawk contracting, and the transformation of two of the Air Force's Air Logistics Centers - resulted in savings to the service of $100 million over roughly a three-year period, McDaniel said.
From the Air Force's perspective, "that's a pretty good return on a $20 million investment," he said. "And in the process, [it] got more products, more weapons, more aircraft, more stuff out to the field where it's needed, saving lives."
Aviation Week, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies.
