The
Lean Aerospace Initiative’s
Lean
Systems Engineering Research
By
Donna Rhodes, Principal Research
Associate, LAI
and Geoffrey Groesbeck, Communications
Manager, LAI
The
Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI)
is an evolving learning and research community that brings together
key aerospace stakeholders from industry, government, organized labor,
and academia. A consortium-guided research program headquartered at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Aeronautics
and Astronautics, in close collaboration with the Sloan School of Management,
LAI is managed under the ESD’s MIT-wide interdisciplinary research
center, the Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development.
The
Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI) has three broad Knowledge Areas, each
with its own research agenda and goals informed by the consortium’s
members. These are:
Enterprise
Architecting – Creating a future lean vision and
designing an enterprise to support it, by incorporating information,
organization, process, technology and strategic dimensions
Enterprise
Change – Strategic, enterprise-level approach to
accelerating effective and sustainable improvement and change
Product
Lifecycle "Pushing the envelope" in the area
of designing and developing aerospace products in a complex system-of-systems
environment in order to shorten cycle time, reduce cost and increase
delivery of best lifecycle value. This knowledge area has two components
to it: product development and systems engineering.
Each
of the aforementioned categories has its own research focus, as well
as a set of current and envisioned products. This article will focus
on an area of interest to those interested in the development and evolution
of the field of Engineering Systems: Systems Engineering.
Currently,
LAI’s systems engineering research is focused on two specific
areas: Lean Systems Engineering and Systems/Systems-of-Systems Engineering.
The first area examines how proven lean principles and practices can
be applied to delivering value in the systems engineering process. The
second area supports systems engineering revitalization policies and
changing needs for the aerospace industry.
Within
the Product Lifecycle Knowledge Area, the Systems Engineering research
area is examining how proven lean principles and practices may be applied
to delivering value in the systems engineering process, while also minimizing
waste and non-value add activities. The lean approach translates into
significant savings for the aerospace industry and the Department of
Defense (DoD), better products for commercial and military customers,
and an ability for the U.S. to compete more effectively in the high-speed,
high-stakes global market.
Conscious
of its mission to address the needs of member organizations of LAI,
the area of Systems Engineering research seeks to contribute to the
body of knowledge to support ongoing evolution of the Capability Maturity
Model Integration (CMMI). CMMI is a reference model of mature practices,
used to appraise and improve an organization’s capability to perform
that discipline leading to institutionalization of its key practices.
LAI
published the initial concepts in "Lean Systems Engineering:
Research Initiatives in Support of a New Paradigm" (see http://lean.mit.edu/).
A recent Lean Systems Engineering Panel was held at the 2004 Symposium
of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), which
presented the emerging ideas of researchers in the LAI EdNet.
The
DoD and the United States Air Force have recently issued new policies
and guidance related to systems engineering revitalization. In support
of the revitalization effort, LAI has led and participated in several
workshops, panels, conferences, and study teams. Government and industry
leaders presented highlights of the policy and industry response to
policies at the Revitalizing Systems Engineering session of the 2004
LAI Plenary Conference. In June 2004, the AF/LAI Workshop on Systems
Engineering for Robustness was held to further the dialogue on this
subject.
Current
LAI systems engineering research topics include:
-
Stakeholder value analysis on complex systems
- Systems
thinking in senior systems engineers
- Domain-specific
use of Multi-Attribute Trade Space Exploration (MATECON)
- Quantification
of unarticulated value
- Principles
and practices of lean systems engineering
- Systems
engineering leading indicators
Systems
Engineering Team
Dr. Donna Rhodes,
Principal Research Engineer at MIT’s Center for Technology, Policy
and Industrial Development (CTPID) and Senior Lecturer, ESD, co-leads
the Product Lifecycle Knowledge Area with emphasis on the systems engineering
research program.
Dr.
Eric Rebentisch, Research Associate, LAI (CTPID) co-leads the overall
of LAI Product Lifecycle Knowledge Area.
Professor
Daniel E. Hastings, Professor, Engineering Systems and Aeronautics
and Astronautics and Director, Engineering Systems Division, serves
as the primary faculty advisor for the systems engineering research
program.
Other
MIT/ESD faculty and researchers participating in this knowledge area
include:
Professor
Earll Murman, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering
Systems
Professor Annalisa Weigel, Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and
Astronautics and Engineering Systems
ESD
Ph.D. students Heidi
Davidz, Adam Ross,
Jason Bartolomei.
The
LAI systems engineering research group also works in partnership and
collaboration with many other universities, centers of excellence, federally-funded
research and development centers, paradigm corporations, consortiums,
and professional societies. In addition to research initiatives undertaken
here at MIT, there is an extended research network through the Lean
Systems Engineering Group within the LAI Educational Network.
Click
here for further information on the
Lean Aerospace Initiative.
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