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1) What is Lean? 2) How does Lean apply to aviation and aerospace? 3) What is the LFI? 4) What is the relationship between LFI, LAI and other initiatives? 5) Who is involved in the LFI? 6) What are the benefits in joining the LFI? 7) How much does it cost to be a member? 8) How do I contact the LFI? 1) What is Lean? "Lean is elimination of waste and efficient creation of enterprise value" 2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology When Henry Ford introduced automotive mass production in 1908, an industry was born. In the 1970’s, Shigeo Shingo, the father of the Toyota Production System, saw the genius in Ford’s functional system of mass production, but challenged large-lot production. He noticed the product flow as determined by customer needs and realised the ideal solution for the Toyota Production System was to keep all materials continuously flowing. Anything that prevents the flow of material is Waste. Lean thinking is an ongoing process and the concept of continuous improvement has been a major thrust of the Lean production system that began with Toyota and continues to be central to Lean thinking. Lean is centred on the elimination of waste with the goal of creating value. To be customer driven all forms of waste must be eliminated and these include: overproduction, over processing, waiting, moving items, defects, inventory, unnecessary motion and unused employee creativity. Eliminating waste is important not solely with the aim of reducing costs but also to improve quality, safety and responsiveness to changing market requirements. To focus exclusively on creating value is insufficient, because many improvement opportunities occur following focused efforts to eliminate waste. A powerful method for this is value stream mapping, where all activities which are value added are captured in sequence through a given operation and whatever does not add value is considered waste. Lean thinking involves both eliminating waste and identifying improvements. This means delivering what customers want and need, and enabling companies to improve the value of their goods and services as perceived by the customer. (Sources: Lean Solutions, Womack & Jones, 2005 and Lean Enterprise Value, MIT, various contributors, 2002) 2) How does Lean apply to aviation and aerospace? Lean methodology focuses on the elimination of waste and the efficient creation of enterprise value. Where Lean principles have been introduced to date, including many examples in the aerospace industry, enterprises have experienced dramatically improved competitiveness, productivity, and cost efficiency. In the early nineties the aerospace industry was reeling from the combined effects of defence budgets drying up at the end of the Cold War and a hard fall in passenger demand after the Gulf War. These factors placed huge pressure on both the military and commercial markets and lead to significant changes within the aerospace industry. Aerospace manufacturers turned to the automotive industry for inspiration and so began to introduce Lean principles The Lean Aerospace Initiative was formally launched in 1993 at the behest of the U.S. Air Force and is run out of MIT. It is a learning and research community that brings together key aerospace stakeholders from industry, government, and academia. One of its main objectives is to develop tools and knowledge that enable and accelerate the envisioned transformation of the US aerospace enterprise. Example of these tools include lean enterprise self assessment tools, training tools, lean enterprise value simulation etc 3) What is the LFI? The LFI (Lean Flight Initiative) aims to extend the use of Lean best practices to international aircraft operators and companies that support airlines operations such as providers of technology solutions; facilitation of flight operations, line maintenance and dispatch; documentation and content management; and other frontline processes. Research and project implementation to date has tended to focus on the manufacturing element of the aerospace industry and very little focus has been brought to the end user i.e. the aircraft operator. The Lean Flight Initiative expands the use of Lean principles to the end user and looks at Lean in the spectrum of Flight Operations. The LFI aims to build upon the work of other initiatives, such as the LAI, and will involve many of the same participants. A network of airlines, industry and academic institutions have come together to establish the LFI to build on existing networks to share information and promote best practices in aircraft operations. The LFI is an industry association, founded to develop and promote Lean principles, practices and tools among aircraft operators and companies facilitating and supporting all aspects of airline operations. The LFI’s main objectives are to research, develop and promulgate knowledge, principles, practices and tools to enable and accelerate the envisioned transformation of the global airline industry through people, technology and processes.
4) What is the relationship between LFI, LAI and other initiatives? The difference between the LFI and the LAI is that the LFI is intended to expand the scope of earlier initiatives in two dimensions: in functional scope to aircraft operators and companies involved in facilitating airline operations; and geographically to an international rather than a largely American membership. The LAI has also historically been largely focused on the defence side of the aerospace industry, while the LFI will deal more with commercial aviation. 5) Who is involved in the LFI? To date nearly 40 potential members have expressed interest in the LFI, including airlines, aerospace industry companies, and academic institutions. The LFI brings together world leading airlines, industry and academia partners to share information and promote Lean-based practices in aircraft operations. The following is a list of airlines, industry and academia partners that attended the 1st Annual LFI Plenary Conference Airlines Aer Arann Alaska CityJet Continental Airlines Finnair Futura JetBlue Lufthansa SAS Braathens Singapore Airlines TACA International Airlines United Airlines Virgin Atlantic Industry AMT Arconics Armac Systems Avionica Boeing Enterprise Ireland FAEI GECAS IALPA IBM Jeppesen Lufthansa Systems Group Lufthansa Technik Turbine Shannon NavAero Parallel Graphics Parc Aviation PWA International Rockwell Collins Sabre Airline Solutions Shannon Aerospace WestGlobal World Class International Universities MIT Trinity College Dublin University of Bath University of Limerick University of Warwick 6) What are the benefits in joining the LFI? Airline Partner Benefits
Industry Partner Benefits
Academic Partner Benefits
7) How much does it cost to be a member? The initiative is intended to run on a not-for-profit basis, but will of course require resources in order to deliver on the ambitious schedule of planned events and research activities. The level of annual dues and other charges will be agreed by the members. This will be a topic for discussion at the first plenary conference in Dublin on 3-4 May 2006. 8) How do I contact the LFI? For detailed information in becoming a member of the Lean Flight Initiative, organisations should address enquiries to the following contact: Lean Flight Initiative 2 The Green Malahide County Dublin Ireland Tel: (+3531) 806 1000 Fax: (+3531) 806 1025 Email: info@leanflightinitiative.com |
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