Lean enterprise self-assessment as a leading indicator for accelerating transformation in the aerospace industry

The research contained in this thesis explores leading indicators of lean enterprise transformation in the aerospace industry, as part of the greater body of work associated with MIT's Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI). Arguments from literature are made in support of the assumption that a lean enterprise can outperform a less lean enterprise, permitting the research to focus on identifying potential means for achieving and accelerating lean enterprise transformation in the aerospace industry. Senior enterprise leaders and their leadership committees from thirty-one enterprises in the US and UK aerospace industry utilized the LAI Lean Enterprise Self-Assessment Tool (LESAT) as a means for measuring their current state of leanness in leadership/transformation processes, lifecycle processes, and enabling infrastructure. Cross-sectional LESAT data, two-period time series LESAT data, and directed interviews and site visits were utilized to formulate the conclusions drawn in this thesis. There are four primary empirical findings of this research. First, the aerospace industry as a whole exhibits lowest maturity in practices related to establishing and deploying a lean enterprise vision, even in the presence of high maturity in lean production. Second, enterprises exhibiting high lean enterprise maturity in leadership/transformation processes also exhibit high maturity in lifecycle processes and enabling infrastructure. Third, strong leadership commitment (LC) correlates highly with setting a lean enterprise change environment (CE), which then correlates highly with lean change activities in practice (CP).

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Hallam, Cory R. A

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Deborah J. Nightingale.

• Technology, Management, and Policy Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29216

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29216