Lean manufacturing--from the Japanese auto industry to the U.S. aircraft industry and beyond
9/18/2000
In Breaking the Cost Barrier, Ruffa and Perrozziello show how the concepts of lean manufacturing—pioneered in the Japanese auto industry—were applied in the U.S. aircraft industry and can be extended to other industries as well. Going inside the production facilities of 17 major manufacturers of military and commercial aircraft, engines, and avionics, the authors demonstrate that "each of the major tools and practices associated with lean production is aimed at addressing one underlying factory issue: production variation." Focusing on variation, they write, can result in dramatic improvement in fundamental metrics such as manufacturing cycle time, inventory, and cycle time variation.