It has recently come to my attention that Google still finds this page when looking for me. Up until very recently it contained information from 1998 and earlier (!) In the service of industrial archeology, the old pages may be found here. Note most links are broken and all info is out of date. Another archeological note- this page was (re)written using Adobe Pagemill 2.0 - still works.
Below is a short bio. More information on what I do may be found under the website of my current professional home, Metis Design (Check out "Lean Enterprise Solutions") and my primary customers, the Lean Aerospace Initiative (where I have authored or co-created tools such as the Product Development Value Stream Mapping method, and the Lean Enterprise Value Simulation), its Lean Academy (I was interrum director last year and have contributed to the Lean Engineering and training simulation content), and the associated Space Systems, Policy and Architecture Research Consortium (where I was the Executive Director during the active years of the consortium). If you are really interested, come to our next seminar. I am also currently working with the SEAri lab at MIT on a shortcourse in Tradespace Exploration for Systems Design. Several of these classes are being offered in summer 08 by the MIT professional institute.
A very old personal page is here; friends with very little to do may find it nostalgic. The family has grown and prospered; here is our annual (05) apple-picking snapshot. We are active members of the Peabody School community in North Cambridge. I still enjoy the backcountry and gardening (but we did get a new car, and the cat is no longer with us). Less nostalgic friends may want to check out the photo sets and holiday junkmail posted at .Mac
Hugh McManus is a Senior Special Projects Engineer at Metis Design, applying modern product development, business and technical practices to the aerospace industry. He has done pioneering work in application of lean techniques to product development with MIT's Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI), including leading seminars and workshops, supervising research, and authoring several tools for lean transformation. He is currently facilitating lean short courses and transformation events using a unique business simulation (co-developed with Eric Rebentisch of LAI) to rapidly teach advanced lean concepts, and allow participants to experience lean transformations in a simulated environment. He is also developing, and working with, advanced tools for space system architecture and front-end design. These focus on trade space exploration, the art of looking at a very large number of possible design solutions, and making rational comparisons between them, before making difficult and potentially expensive development decisions. Methods for handling and even exploiting the risk and uncertainty that are intrinsic to the early stages of product development are also under study as part of this effort.
He recently co-authored a book on lean methods in the Aerospace Industry, Lean Enterprise Value, and published several major tools and reports, including the LAI tools "Product Development Value Stream Mapping (PDVSM)" and "Product Development Transition to Lean (PDTTL)," and an extensive report on new Space System Architecture methods. He has also co-edited a book on applications of polymer composite materials, has been an associate editor of the AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, and has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications.
Dr. McManus has also taught and practiced aerospace structures and materials. He was a structural engineer at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (now a division of Lockheed Martin), and at Kaman Aerospace for a total of 10 years, and taught structures and materials courses at MIT for 7 years. He remains actively interested in aerospace structural engineering, composite materials, structural health monitoring, and high-temperature polymer materials.
Dr. McManus received a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 1990, and S. B. and S. M. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 1980 and 1981. He has worked at Kaman Aerospace (1981-84) and Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (1984-1990), as the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Boeing Career Development Professor for 1991-94, the Class of 1943 Career Development Professor for 1994-97, Associate Professor for 1997-98, and as a Principal Research Engineer from 1998-2002. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Metis Design
222 Third St.
Cambridge MA 02142
617 661 5616 x204
hmcmanus "at" alum.mit.edu
McManus, H. L. and Schuman, T. E., "Understanding the Orbital Transfer Vehicle Trade Space," AIAA Paper 2003-6370, Sept. 2003. (PDF )
McManus, H. L., Hastings, D. E. and Warmkessel, J. M., "New Methods for Rapid Architecture Selection and Conceptual Design," Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 41, No. 1, Jan.-Feb. 2004, pp. 10-19.
McManus, H. L. and Warmkessel, J. M., "Creating Advanced Architectures for Space Systems: Emergent Lessons from New Processes," Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 41, No. 1, Jan.-Feb. 2004, pp. 69-74.
McManus, H. L. and Hastings, D. E., "Space System Architecture- Final Report of SSPARC: the Space Systems, Policy, and Architecture Research Consortium (Thrust II and III)," MIT Lean Aerospace Initiative, September 2004. (download from here)
McManus, H. L., "Product Development Transition to Lean (PDTTL) Roadmap, Release Beta," MIT Lean Aerospace Initiative, September 2004. (download from here if you are an LAI member, otherwise enquire by email)
McManus, H. L. and Hastings, D. E., "A Framework for Understanding Uncertainty and its Mitigation and Exploitation in Complex Systems." Fifteenth Annual International Symposium of the INCOSE, Rochester, NY, July 2005. (PDF)
McManus, H. L., Haggerty, A. and Murman, E., "Lean Engineering: Doing the Right Thing Right," Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Innovation and Integration in Aerospace Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK, August 2005. (under review for journal publication; please email with inquiries)
McManus, H. L., "Product Development Value Stream Mapping (PDVSM) Manual, Release 1.0," MIT Lean Aerospace Initiative, September 2005. (download from here if you are an LAI member, otherwise enquire by email)
