Ian Sheppard/London
Launched in April, the UK Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI) is a 50:50 Government/industry-funded programme co-ordinated by the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) as part of its Competitiveness Challenge.
Donald Craig, seconded from Rolls-Royce as SBAC LAI programme manager, believes that the UK is leading the way in Europe, partly because of its closer links with US manufacturers and its Lean Aircraft Initiative (US LAI), now approaching the end of a second three-year phase.
Although many companies in Europe are introducing lean principles, Sweden is the only other country to have formed links with the USA or to have pursued a co-ordinated, industry-wide, approach. French trade organisation GIFAS is interested, however, and AECMA, the umbrella organisation for European aerospace trade organisations, including the SBAC, is keen to develop lean programmes under the auspices of the European Commission. "The sharing approach hasn't really happened outside the UK/USA," says Craig.
US industry, meanwhile, sees the UK LAI as a "useful door" to the European aerospace market, as it involves around 40 participating companies and organisations. On the academic side, Warwick University is leading the universities of Bath, Cranfield and Nottingham in a range of research projects, following the USexample of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Industry participants include all the big names in the UK industry, and some smaller ones, such as Meggitt.
The SBAC is developing an initial framework, based on the US Lean Enterprise Model (LEM), to standardise benchmarking. It will embrace integrated product development, managing the supply chain and empowerment for decision making.
One of the first tasks of the UK LAI is to assess what has been successful over the past 12-24 months. The SBAC will then have a foundation for its "aerospace best practice database", says Craig. To ensure that the US LEM is built upon, rather than re-invented, the UK universities are forming "collaborative arrangements" with their US counterparts.
The second stage of the SBAC's Supply Chain Relationships in Aerospace (SCRIA) programme was launched in May to encourage globalisation. Project manager Mark Chamberlain says that SCRIA"-underpins LAI".
A code of practice was released in 1996, covering communication, design for manufacture, continuous improvement, supplier qualification and auditing, commercial agreements and ethics. Some 35,000 copies have been distributed and 140 firms have agreed to "-embed it into their processes and practice".
The UK has "-the only national industry to have brought together the relationship aspects of supply chain manage ment", believes Chamberlain. SCRIA aims to confront "tired and unproductive working practices", creating effective business teams between and within organisations. This has led to "dramatic commercial results", the SBAC says.
Source: Flight International
