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 21 st 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”

Sample Publications (available at or at ) 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

Additional Research Output Books and Monographs:  LARA Research is incorporated into Lean Enterprise Value: Insights from MIT’s 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