Challenges in the better, faster, cheaper era of aeronautical design, engineering and manufacturing

'Better, faster, cheaper' (BFC) emerged in the 1990s as a new paradigm for aerospace products. In this paper, we examine some of the underlying reason s for BFC and offer some thoughts to help frame the thinking and action of aerospace industry professionals in this new era. Examination of literature on industrial innovation indicates that aeronautical products have evolved to a 'dominant design' and entered the 'specific phase' of their product l ife cycle. Innovation in this phase centers on: incremental product improve ment, especially for productivity and quality; process technology; technolo gical innovations that offer superior substitutes. The first two of these a re aligned with BFC objectives. The concepts of 'value' and 'best lifecycle value' are introduced as concep tual frameworks. Value is offered as a metric for BFC. Risk management is i ntimately tied to achieving value and needs to be integrated into aeronauti cal processes. The process technology area is addressed by considering 'lea n' practices for design, engineering and manufacturing. Illustrative result s of process improvements from the seven-year Lean Aerospace Initiative res earch programme at MIT indicate opportunities to achieve BFC. Concluding re marks offer some challenges to industry, government and academics in aerona utical design, engineering and manufacturing.