RAND Research Brief: Lean Manufacturing and the Defense Industry. Lessons for Cost Analysts

Since the end of the Cold War, the Department of Defense DoD has launched a number of initiatives whose common objective has been to reduce the costs of weapon systems that are planned, under development, or in production. Largely in response to these measures, U.S. defense firms have in recent years begun to embrace lean manufacturing, a broad collection of principles and practices whose aim is to refashion the production process in a manner that includes the elimination of waste, the removal of inventory buffers, and a focus on quality. To date, however, few studies have been undertaken to determine the extent to which government cost-estimating tools should be appropriately adjusted to reflect the growing use of such practices within the military aircraft industry.