CIPD Special Seminar Presentation

Lean Systems Engineering

By Donna Rhodes, LAI Principal Researcher and ESD Senior Lecturer

Systems Engineering (SE) has become increasingly important as the complexity and interconnectedness of systems continues to grow, but there remains a great deal of uncertainty as to how and when systems engineering can most effectively and efficiently add value throughout a program's lifecycle. The Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI) Consortium has undertaken research and initiatives for two aspects of modern systems engineering.

The first is to explore potential synergies of lean practices and systems engineering practices. Lean Thinking (Lean) is the dynamic, knowledge driven and customer-focused process through which all stakeholders in a defined enterprise continuously eliminate waste and create value. SE and Lean have overlaps and differences, but both represent processes that evolved over time with the common goal of delivering product or system lifecycle value to the customer. With SE and Lean sharing a common goal, but having different emphasis areas towards achieving that goal, there arises the possibility that some suitable combination of the two could lead to a superior systems engineering process -- Lean Systems Engineering.

The second area is in support of new Department of Defense policies to revitalize Systems Engineering, and to evolve "classical" systems engineering practices to an expanded practice to accommodate modern systems and systems-of-systems challenges.