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.