Dr. Bohdan Oppenheim, Professor and Graduate Director of Mechanical Engineering at LMU and founder and co-chair of the Lean Systems Engineering Group of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) has managed a three-year project developing Lean Enablers for Systems Engineering (LEfSE). A collection of practices and recommendations of systems engineering, LEfSE is focused on Mission Assurance and satisfaction of stakeholders achieved with minimum waste. LEfSE has been developed by 14 international experts from the Lean Systems Engineering Working Group, with cooperation from its 100+ members, and is organized into six Lean Principles called Value, Value Stream, Flow, Pull, Perfection, and Respect for People.

“Lean Systems Engineering is not Less Systems Engineering; it is more and better Systems Engineering with less waste: waiting, lack of coordination, needless rework," explains Oppenheim. "It is a means to finally reduce the notorious schedule and budget overruns of our programs."

LEfSE is a comprehensive checklist of 194 practices and recommendations formulated as "do's" and "don'ts" of systems engineering, and containing tacit knowledge (collective wisdom) on how to prepare for, plan, execute, and practice using Lean Thinking. Each enabler enhances the program value and reduces some waste. As a set, the enablers are focused on providing more predictable and waste-free solution to complex challenges.

The new field of Lean Systems Engineering (LSE) is the application of Lean Thinking to Systems Engineering and to the related aspects of enterprise management. Lean Thinking is the holistic management paradigm credited for the extraordinary rise of Toyota to the most profitable and the largest auto company in the world. For example, the Prius car design was completed in nine months from the end of styling, a performance not matched by any competitor. It has become an established paradigm in manufacturing, aircraft depots, administration, supply chain management, health, and product development, including engineering.

Dr. Oppenheim joined LMU in 1981 and took his Ph.D. in Ship Science and Aeronautics at University of Southampton, U.K. He has published extensively on Lean, as well as on Polish Catholicism, and has won grants from NASA, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Raytheon Company. For more information on Dr. Oppenheim, see:
http://cse.lmu.edu/departments/mechanicalengineering/graduate/faculty/bohdanoppenheim.htm.

For more information on Lean systems, see http://cse.lmu.edu/Assets/Oppenheim+Crosstalk+4+15+09.pdf.