Lean engineering performance analysis

The context of product development (PD) in the aerospace sector is one of intense competitive pressure. To ensure the continued competitiveness of this industrial sector in Canada, enhancing the productivity of PD is an urgent necessity. While the lean philosophy has been used with much success in the manufacturing world, there is an absence of comprehensive models that measure the benefits of lean improvement in PD. The purpose of this paper is to present a novel lean engineering performance assessment model. The model is applied to a real-life case company, and the results and implications arising from the application thereof are discussed. The results of the model show that it is effective in providing the ability to study the influence of a number of criteria and management policies on PD performance, in focusing improvement efforts in the most needed areas, and in supporting the overarching lean engineering goal of continuous improvement. Being able to measure lean in PD helps to shed light on what makes a PD process lean.

[1]  Lei Zhang,et al.  Prediction of Engineering Performance: A Neurofuzzy Approach , 2005 .

[2]  David J. Edwards,et al.  Forensic Project Management: An Exploratory Examination of the Causal Behavior of Design-Induced Rework , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

[3]  Andy Neely,et al.  The forces that shape organisational performance measurement systems:: An interdisciplinary review , 1999 .

[4]  Jeffrey K. Liker,et al.  The Toyota Production System and art: making highly customized and creative products the Toyota way , 2007 .

[5]  A. Griffin,et al.  PDMA Success Measurement Project: Recommended Measures for Product Development Success and Failure , 1996 .

[6]  Robert K. Buchheim.  Developing performance metrics for a design engineering department , 2000, IEEE Trans. Engineering Management.

[7]  Yanfeng Wang,et al.  Optimal resource allocation in new product development projects: a control-theoretic approach , 2002, IEEE Trans. Autom. Control..

[8]  John R. Hauser,et al.  Metrics: you are what you measure! , 1998 .

[9]  Ricardo Valerdi,et al.  Practical Implementation of an Enterprise Measurement System: From Inception to Transformation , 2009 .

[10]  Vittorio Chiesa,et al.  Measuring Performance in New Product Development Projects: A Case Study in the Aerospace Industry , 2007 .

[11]  Karl T. Ulrich,et al.  Special Issue on Design and Development: Product Development Decisions: A Review of the Literature , 2001, Manag. Sci..

[12]  Harry Commandeur,et al.  Understanding new product project performance , 2006 .

[13]  Michael N. Kennedy.  Product Development for the Lean Enterprise: Why Toyota''''s System Is Four Times More Productive an , 2003 .

[14]  Ricardo Valerdi,et al.  Navigating the Metrics Landscape: An Introductory Literature Guide to Metric Selection, Implementation, & Decision Making , 2009 .

[15]  James R. Evans.  An exploratory study of performance measurement systems and relationships with performance results , 2004 .

[16]  Jaana Sandström,et al.  The problem of managing product development engineers: Can the balanced scorecard be an answer? , 2002 .

[17]  Kulwant S. Pawar,et al.  Performance evaluation of new product development from a company perspective , 2001 .

[18]  J. Jayaram,et al.  Relationship building, lean strategy and firm performance: an exploratory study in the automotive supplier industry , 2008 .

[19]  Badr Haque,et al.  Applying lean thinking to new product introduction , 2004 .

[20]  Peter L. Jackson,et al.  Systems engineering metrics and applications in product development: A critical literature review and agenda for further research , 2008 .

[21]  Vince Thomson,et al.  Management Methods for Reducing Span Time during New Product Development , 2011 .