NewVectors Projects
Supply Chain Value Stream Management
In the Supply Chain Value Stream Management Project, NewVectors supply chain experts teamed with the Boeing supplier development staff to improve the nose landing gear supply chain for the Navy's F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet. The team analyzed a set of nine companies in the supply chain, the "value stream" reaching from the third-tier suppliers back to Boeing. The team developed a new and powerful approach for analyzing supply chains as complex systems, an expansion of the widely touted "lean manufacturing" concept.
This Navy-funded project has demonstrated overall lead time reductions from 62 to 48 weeks (a key Boeing goal), and inventory reductions in the landing gear supply chain of 19%. Suppliers participating in the study have become stronger and more valuable to all their customers, and the Navy now has a guidebook that provides insights for the improvement of nearly any supply chain.