Eric S. Rebentisch
Eric Rebentisch
Lean Aerospace Initiative
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave., Room 33-407
Cambridge MA 02139
Telephone Voice: (617) 258-7773
Telephone Fax: (617) 258-7845
E-mail: erebenti@mit.edu
Background
I'm a research associate in the Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development (CTPID) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and co-lead researcher in the Policy and External Environment focus team of the Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI). The Lean Aerospace Initiative is a cooperative consortium involving Industry, Government, and Academia. The objective of the LAI is to investigate the applicability of "lean" practices to the U.S. aerospace industry. The program originated from research and findings from MIT's highly influential International Motor Vehicle Program, and is conducted by the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the CTPID.
Current Research
Managing With Program Instability: Program instability occurs when changes are made in a program's resources or priorities after the program plan and execution strategy have been completed. A common form of program instability is a budget cut or requirements change after development has begun, resulting in higher costs, fewer systems procured, and a weakened industrial base. Research to date has involved an extensive survey of over 150 acquisition and development programs across the military services in the Department of Defense and over 100 programs within U.S. defense aerospace contractors. The current findings formed the basis for a number of recommended policy changes submitted to the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology (USD(A&T)) in May, 1997. The results have been documented in Lean Aircraft Initiative reports and presentations (including presentations within the office of the USD(A&T) and the senior acquisition leadership in the Air Force). Follow-on research in this area will examine the management of large and complex portfolios of product development projects.
Use of Commercial Practices in Government Procurement: Many of the current reforms of the defense acquisition system center around the use of commercial or commercial-like practices in acquisitions ranging from raw materials to finished systems. This on-going research seeks to define applicable commercial practices and their potential value in reducing acquisition costs. Recently completed research identified the specific commercial-like procurement practices currently being used in 23 government acquisition program offices, and the benefits they experienced in terms of reduced cost and cycle time. In related work, 1340 electronics manufacturing services firms were surveyed to assess the extent of their working knowledge and experience with recent acquisition reforms, and their perceived disincentives to increased business with the U.S. government.
The Role of the "Lean User" in Requirements Generation and Development: The users of complex aerospace products typically assume an important role in determining the product's architecture and ultimate life cycle costs. This is especially true in the case of products tailor-made to unique or specific applications such as military operations. This research will examine the organizational structures, processes and interaction patterns, areas of expertise, and types of information shared between the users and developers of complex products. This will include the study of several cases from the public and private sector examining interactions between users and developers in what are considered to be successful system development efforts. The expected benefits are a clearer definition of the roles and practices used by leading user organizations to achieve a successful tradeoff between system performance and life cycle costs.
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Last updated 20 November 1997.