Lean Design - tools and methods of lean product development

How's your product development process working for you? Is it lightening fast? Does it scale to the size of project involved? Are design resources being utilized efficiently, and focused primarily on high-value opportunities? How about those "gate reviews"? Are they successful at finding errors, ensuring quality, and guaranteeing a successful and timely product launch? If your answers to the above questions are less than an enthusiastic affirmative, take heart. There is no need to throw out your current (albeit cumbersome and inconsistently applied) development process. The twelve methods of Lean Product Development, summarized in the figures below, can drive the waste out of even the most rotund process, revealing the essential core that is best suited for your culture, industry, and customers. Each lean method addresses a different category of waste within the product development cycle: poor communication, too many meetings, frequent and disruptive change, inefficient resource allocation and prioritization, time management, quality assurance, cost management, and more. Each of the twelve Lean Methods consists of several specific tools that can be adapted to virtually any circumstance: simple, easily applied, and proven to be effective. So don't toss out that complex, sluggish development process your firm worked so hard to implement. Just give it a waste-slashing tune-up using the methods of Lean Product Development.