Lean Supplier Networks Framework

Abstract

This framework was developed in 1995. The question was what are the main principles, practices, and metrics that the defense aircraft enterprises may strive to adopt in order to achieve significant improvements in terms of their overall performance (e.g., lower costs, higher productivity, higher quality, enterprise-level performance improvements (e.g., lower costs, higher productivity), in view of the fact that as much as sixty percent of the total end-product value is accounted for by the supplier base supporting individual enterprises. The framework draws upon the cumulative research results of MIT’s International Vehicle Program (IMVP) since 1985 focusing on supplier networks in the auto industry, as well as on the extant research available from the open literature on supply chain management, as modified by LAI’s focus group representing all parts of the U.S. defense aircraft industry to capture the special conditions and circumstances surrounding the larger aircraft industry. The novel feature of the framework is its chained conceptual architecture in arraying lean supply chain management practices: overarching practices, enabling practices, supporting practices, and operating practices, as well as performance metrics at all four levels. This particular architecture was chosen to enhance both the easy comprehension and the ready implementation of the overall framework. The same organizing architecture was also adopted in developing LAI’s Lean Enterprise Model.