Principles of Enterprise Systems

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through its Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI) research team has been conducting research and facilitating enterprise-level transformations in large complex sociotechnical enterprises for over fifteen years. These enterprises have spanned a broad base of industries and governmental organizations including aerospace, automotive, electronics, health care, transportation, construction, defense acquisition and logistics, research labs and many others. What has emerged from both the action research in the field and its application in case studies in graduate courses is the concept of “overarching” enterprise principles and transformation methodologies that are independent of the industry or organization. A framework for transformation that consists of a set of interdependent methodologies, tools and enterprise principles that support holistic enterprise transformation is described and includes the following five elements: 1) Key Principles of Enterprise Thinking, 2) Enterprise Transformation Roadmap, 3) Lean Enterprise Self Assessment Tool (LESAT), 4) Enterprise Strategic Analysis for Transformation (ESAT) and 5) Enterprise Architecting Framework. The application of this framework to the enterprise systems analysis and design of various industry and governmental organizations is discussed.