return to archive list • this month's article

Lean Product Development
By Mark Riechmann

We have all heard about using the concepts of Lean in manufacturing environments to reduce waste, streamline processes and improve quality, but how many of us have tried to apply the concepts of lean to new product development. It seems like the next logical step after Lean has been successfully introduced in the manufacturing areas.

In a survey of 9,000 global business executives the majority selected ability to innovate as the most important capability for growth of their business. When asked what activity would have the most positive impact on profits, 71% answered faster pace of technological innovation.

Working faster or longer hours are possible solutions to increase the speed at which new products are introduced to the marketplace, but as lean in manufacturing has proven, working faster is not the answer, working smarter is. Elimination of the non-value added activities in product development can dramatically decrease the time required to take a new product from concept to introduction.

There are many advantages to applying lean concepts to new product development as many businesses strive to introduce more new products or services faster, at lower costs, and higher quality than in the past. In spite of the number of advantages, implementing lean concepts in new product development has a different set of challenges associated with it as compared to leaning out the supply chain.

In manufacturing, it is easier to observe and measure scrap and rework and identify areas of waste that can be eliminated. In product development, flow is about information and waste in the product development process is more difficult to observe. In many cases, the product development process starts with a clean sheet of paper and many ideas are generated to try and define the product to meet the needs of the customer. As such, it can be an iterative process that is difficult to describe explicitly in a value stream map and many times more difficult to determine what the value-added and non-value added steps are in the process.

Typical flow in designing a new product follows classic batch and queue. Marketing determines a need, product engineers design the product to serve the need, drawings are produced, prototypes built, tooling generated and then operations is asked to figure out how to produce the parts. Many companies have attempted to integrate program management with a strong team leader and a few dedicated team members, but without changing the rest of the system which has not integrated the entire enterprise into becoming a new product development system throughout the organization.

New Product Development is everyone’s responsibility, not just the marketing department, designers, and product engineering, but must incorporate from the beginning, all functional areas required to produce and deliver the product.

Utilizing the concepts of Lean to create empowered dedicated product teams with the necessary skill and functional responsibilities to lead the design, purchasing, tooling, and manufacturing of product families is the most effective way to develop products that will get to market faster, cheaper and at a higher quality than previously seen.

Obtaining clear requirements from the customer, incorporating integrated cross-functional teams focused on product families, and utilizing lean concepts to reduce waste in the process will dramatically improve the new product development process.

The most difficult part of implementing a lean product development process is getting the organization to accept the change. The first step is to accept that a change in the way new products are brought to market is needed. The key is to find the right leaders with the right knowledge and to begin with the value stream of the current process to determine what dramatic changes can be quickly implemented to improve the process on tasks that are done every day and to continually work on improving and speeding up the process.

Many companies, including Toyota have developed a product development methodology that promotes mentoring, knowledge management and concurrent engineering to learn from what works and what doesn’t. The development of a continually improving process is aided by encouraging a culture that not only seeks out the best solution, but applies the knowledge learned on all projects where it makes the most sense to spark future product designs.

Those attempting to utilize lean in product development need to be careful. Not all iterations and mistakes in the product development process should be considered waste. Mistakes and errors can be utilized as knowledge for future projects as to what doesn’t work and those making the mistakes should not be penalized for trying out new ideas. More can be learned from errors than from always getting it right the first time.

If your design team always gets it right the first time, then likely you are not really developing new and innovative products. Doing what you know is easy, but will not get your new product development process to the next level. You are most likely developing commodity-type products that your competition will eventually copy and beat you in the market solely based on price.

If you would like to learn more about how Lean can be used to dramatically improve your product development process, contact aptimise to help make your business more competitive in today’s market.

References
(1) Lean Thinking by Womack and Jones
(2) The Toyota Way by Jeffrey K. Liker