Aerospace Industry Research Projects
The UK LAI project was formed when decreasing Defence budgets, combined with new competitive pressures in the commercial sector, created major challenges for the global aerospace industry. The UK aerospace industry recognised the need to eliminate waste and to add value within its operations and the UK Lean Aerospace Initiative (UKLAI) now supports these efforts to improve performance through a national research programme involving a leading consortium of Universities of Bath, Cranfield, Nottingham and Warwick, and over thirty participating aerospace companies, together with a close collaboration with the US Lean Aerospace Initiative at MIT.
Research at Bath is directed by Professor Andrew Graves and the research team have played an important role in establishing Aerospace Performance Metrics for industry benchmarking, identifying barriers and enablers for change and generating industry specific case studies to stimulate shared learning and performance improvement.
Current Research Themes
Benchmarking Performance
Tracking improvements in the aerospace industry using the aerospace metrics.
Accounting for the Lean Enterprise
Measurement and accounting systems that support lean implementation and through-life management.
Value Chain Dynamics
Key drivers, intra- and inter-organizational connectivity, and organizational design issues for effective value chain competition.
Through-life Value in Aerospace
Implications of customer value redefinition for design, manufacture and customer support
Supporting Projects
LeanXeur E.U. - eLearning Tools for Lean Implementation
