"Lean" in Aviation

[Ancient Observer]

There has been some comment in the UK media about UK Aviation beginning to apply "lean" thinking to how it works. Does anyone out there have any real experience of "lean" thinking in Aviation? From a quick Google, it looks to have started with Toyota and to be common in the Engineering world. Some Governments also use the thinking for mass document processing, e.g. UK tax offices. I have no idea what a "lean" pilot would look like - other than hours in the gym, which is not what this is about. Any ideas? MOL is supposed to run a lean airline, but maybe that's a typo for mean.

[45989]

Like the last sentence!

[6680740]

Hi

Qantas and KLM are two Airlines which have used Lean principles to a certain degree, albeit more so in their Engineering departments.

From what have seen, it has worked to a certain extent. The principles need to be vastly modified and applied. I gues the biggest challenge is getting the employees invloved.

Change is always viewed with suspicion and the benefits get lost along the way. Lean certainly does not mean "Cost Cutting" Basically doing things more efficiently which involves questioning set mindsets and thinking out of the box. Improving the bottom line with ideas and approaches that stem from people on the front line.

Cheers

[Doobry Firkin]

Lean was used by the RAF during and after the last manpower draw down, wrongly. It's still used but has been renamed Continous Improvement, problem is anyone involved is tarred with the 'LEAN' brush and seen as being there to save money and get rid of jobs. I've seen it in action and it can work really well with some great results depending on the location and task that is being looked at. It is allegedly here to stay.

[Rainboe]

Lean manufacturing or lean production, which is often known simply as "Lean", is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination.

This works in all means of existence. For example, resources and energy were wasted quite unnecessarily moving this post from R&N where it didn't belong. Does it matter? It deflects from efficient running of a forum, so in a way, it did. But the larger an organisation gets, the more the inconsequentialities that get attention deflected from the creation of value for the customer. You need Human Resource departments, Customer Service departments, Technical departments, Taxation and accounting blah blah blah. We have an example of an airline that appears to be run 'lean'-like: Ryanair. Minimise everything except the product to the customer. In some ways, this has generated adverse comment of its own.

I can't help finding things like this 'hot air'. Deep down, people know when there is wastage and unnecessary use of resources in a non-productive and not-cost effective manner. It's a question of doing something about it, not quoting some new fashionable mantra with a high-fallutin' name you have to look up on Wikipedia to understand!

[Mad (Flt) Scientist]

I'd disagree with the statement that this (and all the other six sigma/total quality/right first time/ad nauseam "initiatives" so beloved of management consultants) are "hot air".

Rather they are an indicator of a company where the management has neither the imagination, initiative or determination to manage (and think for) themselves. (so the air isnt just "hot" but also smokey!)

As rainboe says, identification and elimination of waste isn't rocket science. So a company which can only bring itself to do so by apeing some other company, possibly in a different sector, is simply showing how helpless it is.

"Lean" worked in Toyota because it was (and is) Toyota's approach, developed within their own culture and (obviously) tailored to that corporate culture. To imagine that International Widgets can just slap the label "Lean" on everything and become Toyota-lite is farcical.

I've seen "right first time" applied in an iterative design environment - which is really stupid. I've seen production-oriented processes forced into an engineering/design environment - "it doesn't matter whether the report is right, it has to be finished on schedule!", and I've seen the engineering judgement (later shown to be correct) of an experienced engineer (20+ years) overridden by the need, acording to "six sigma", to conduct all kinds of energy absorbing "fact finding" because we are now "data driven".

There's no real competitor for "common sense". Maybe we can make THAT a slogan next ....

[FlightTester]

There's no real competitor for "common sense". Maybe we can make THAT a slogan next ....


Absolutely agree with you but, as one of my Prof's at Loughborough once said to me... if common sense was common, they wouldn't be paying me to teach a systems course to engineers. Over the years I see more and more that convinces me he was right (first time).:ok:

[former twotter mech]

To imagine that International Widgets can just slap the label "Lean" on everything and become Toyota-lite is farcical.You underestimate the ingenuity of businesses in the United States that try to apply Lean Production from the top down through the adoption of Newspeak. :mad:


Some joker at American Airlines decoded LEAN as "Less Employees Are Needed".