Teaching Lean Thinking Principles Through Hands-on Simulations
Name
EdNet07_MCMANUS_Simulation.pdf
Size
1.19 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
930e098800bc3e13bbaedadfac4584b9
Author(s)
McManus, Hugh L.
Rebentisch, Eric
Murman, Earll M.
Stanke, Alexis
Date Issued
June 11, 2007
Abstract
The teaching of Lean Enterprise Thinking in the aerospace context requires that students
understand a complex subject—aerospace enterprises and their transformation—in a deep and
intuitive way. Without this context, the lessons of the LAI Lean Academy Course® will make
little sense. A rich simulation of an enterprise with a structure and problems typical of the US
aerospace industry is used as a teaching tool. The simulation allows students to understand Lean
Thinking at an intuitive level, and practice lean tools in a realistic setting. The simulation
enables a CDIO approach (in this case, Comprehend, Design, Implement and Operate), by
having the students take two iterations through a CDIO process to transform the simulated
enterprise from an inefficient legacy state to a high performance future state (x3 to x6 production
using the same resources). The simulation and its teaching goals are described, with reference to
the limited literature on simulations in education. The process used in the simulation is then
described in a CDIO context. Finally, the success of the simulation is evaluated using limited
quantitative and more extensive qualitative data. It is found that the simulation is a powerful
learning tool and a key component of the LAI Lean Academy.
Subjects
lean education
simulation
LAI Lean Academy
active learning
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