Introduction to Labor Aerospace Research Agenda (LARA)

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Introduction to Labor Aerospace Research Agenda
(LARA)

• Sponsors USAF ManTech, US Department of Labor,
  and others
• Lead Partners IAM and other Labor Organizations
  in Aerospace, LAI Member Organizations
• Principal investigators and Research Team Joel
  Cutcher-Gershenfeld (Co-PI), Tom Kochan (Co-PI),
  Betty Barrett, Lydia Fraile, Adam Litwin, and
  other team members
• Links to LAI Organizations and People, Knowledge
  Deployment, Other Research/Product Teams, and
  Curriculum Development
• Funding 300K/yr

• Focus
• Institutional infrastructure and intellectual
  capital investments associated with building the
  21st Century aerospace workforce
• Impact of instability on employment and workplace
  innovation in the aerospace industry
• Methods
• National random sample facility surveys
• Individual surveys
• Case studies
• Collective bargaining contract analysis
• Archival data analysis
• Conferences and working sessions

Right Skills, Right Place, Right Time
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Sample Publications(available at
http//mit.edu/ctpid/lara or at 617.253.5777)

• Resource Guide
• Collective Bargaining in the Face of Instability
  A Resource for Workers and Employers in the U.S.
  Aerospace Industry (2000)
• Case Studies
• Strategies for Workforce Flexibility and
  Capability (forthcoming)
• IAM/Boeing, St. Louis
• Investing in Knowledge, Skills and Capability in
  an Uncertain Business Environment (2003)
• Rockwell Collins and IBEW
• A Decade of Learning (2001)
• International Association of Machinists and
  Boeing Joint Programs
• Transformation Through Employee Involvement and
  Workplace Training The Challenge of a Changing
  Business Context (2001)
• Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power and the United
  Automobile Workers

• Case Studies (cont.)
• Employing Activity Based Costing and Management
  Practices Within the Aerospace Industry
  Sustaining the Drive for Lean (2000)
• Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, Wichita
  Division and the International Association of
  Machinists
• Fostering Continuous Improvement in a Changing
  Business Context (2000)
• Textron Systems
• From Three to One Integrating a High
  Performance Work Organization Process, Lean
  Production, and Activity Based Costing Change
  Initiatives (2000)
• Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, Wichita
  Division and the International Association of
  Machinists
• Fostering Workplace Innovation and
  Labor-Management Partnership The Challenge of
  Strategic Shifts in Business Operations (1999)
• Pratt and Whitney (UTC) and the International
  Association of Machinists

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Additional Research Output

• Books and Monographs
• LARA Research is incorporated into Lean
  Enterprise Value Insights from MITs Lean
  Aerospace Initiative (Palgrave, 2002)
• Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Joel, Betty Barrett, Eric
  Rebintisch, Thomas Kochan, and Robert Scott,
  Developing a 21st Century Aerospace Workforce.
  Policy White Paper submitted to Human
  Capital/Workforce Task Force, The U.S. Commission
  on the Future of the Aerospace Industry (2002).
• Scholarly Articles
• Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Lean Transformation
  Across the U.S. Aerospace Industry Exploring
  the Interdependence of Social and Technical
  Systems (working paper, 2003)
• Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld and Eric Rebentisch,
  The Impact of Instability on Complex Social and
  Technical Systems, (Proceedings from MIT
  Engineering Systems Division Internal Symposium,
  2002)

• Practitioner-Oriented Articles (all in IRRA
  Perspectives, 2003)
• Instability in the Aerospace Industry A Core
  Strategic Challenge, by Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld
• Counting the Global Aerospace Workforce
  Preliminary Findings, by Betty Barrett, Kevin
  Long, Lydia Fraile, and Adam Litwin
• Labor in Aerospace The Business Perspective, by
  A. Bryan Davis
• Losing Altitude Employment in the U.S. Aerospace
  Sector, by Steve Sleigh, Paul E. Almeida, Faraz
  Kahn
• Out of the Ashes Options for Rebuilding Airline
  Labor Relations, by Thomas Kochan, Andrew von
  Nordenflycht, Robert McKersie, and Jody Hoffer
  Gittell
• Recent Conference Presentations
• Workforce Flexibility Session, International
  Industrial Relations Association, 2003
• Panel Presentations, Industrial Relations
  Research Association, 2003 and 2004 National
  Meetings