Developing, implementing and transferring lean quality initiatives from the aerospace industry to all industries

Japanese companies, particularly Toyota, first began building quality into their products and becoming lean. Consequently, researchers associated with the international motor vehicle industry initially identified the “lean” manufacturing paradigm in the US automobile industry. Building upon their successes, the US aerospace industry initiated a study to ascertain whether a similar initiative focused on launch vehicles and spacecraft would bring value to military and commercial aerospace stakeholders in their ongoing efforts to be lean. This paper presents the findings of this investigation. It explores the relevance and value of the lean concepts to the US defense launch vehicle, spacecraft, and space operations industries, and it ascertains if there is interest within space industry firms in establishing a lean initiative similar to that of the automotive industry. Further, the relevance of lean manufacturing to other industries is considered.