Achieving Competitive Excellence Application of Lean Principles in the Aerospace MRO

Today market is very competitive, and the companies have the necessity to continuously improve their production process with the objective of maximize the exploitation of the resources minimizing the waste in order to don’t down. The main drivers are quality, operational excellence, lead time and cost reductions and in the half of the XX century, they become the drivers for a new method that has as founder Taiichi Ohno, a young engineer of Toyota. During the second half of the past century this method evolves becoming a real “philosophy of working” and starts to be implemented not only in the production but at all the levels inside the company. In this way it passes from being only a tool to a real “way of working” that drives all the company’s procedures and activities. This thesis has the objective to present this method from its origin to the current situation, analysing the main tools applied and study practically its application in Collins Aerospace – Microtecnica that provide me the opportunity to be involved in their ACE (Achieving Operational Excellence) team. The main goals of this team are the improvement (Kaizen) the manufacturing and assembly systems and the MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul), throw the minimization of waste and the training thanks to its “global view” that avoid getting lost into too much focussed view typical of a technician. This preliminary study will analyse how the ACE (Achieving Competitive Excellence) Operating System is applied in the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul business with the purpose of continuous improve it, increase the margin, eliminate the wastes and smoothing the repairing flow. It could be an unconventional example of Lean Principles application because it is a context completely different from the Automotive production line where the Lean born.