Lean Product Development Main Page

       In today's globally competitive environment, speed is everything. Overseas competition can respond to a market need virtually overnight, and in many product categories, market winners and losers are being decided in a matter of weeks rather than years. To survive in this maelstrom, design teams need to be fast, efficient, and highly effective. True excellence in time-to-market, however, requires cooperation among several functional areas (at a minimum, marketing, design engineering, and manufacturing), along with something that is often in short supply in industry today; discipline. Product development is a process, and as such, can only work if the process is actually used. We have worked with countless firms that have a well-defined product development process...at least on paper. Somewhere on a dusty shelf there is a thick, formal document that describes how the development cycle should proceed. However this formal process is not consistently applied, critical activities are often waived, and in some cases, the process is abandoned entirely in the interest of "getting the product out the door."
        Why this happens is no mystery. Most firms have adopted a "canned" development process that either: a) worked somewhere else and was borrowed, b) has been bestowed with the title of "best practice" (a term that makes us cringe...history has proven that no practice stays "best" for long), or c) was implemented by an outside consultancy that made great promises, but failed to recognize the unique nature of the firm's industry, culture, and customers. The result is often an overblown, "belt-and-suspenders" process that is so cumbersome and restrictive that it just begs to be circumvented. Never fear! Whether you are currently using a "phase and gate" (aka, "stages and gates" or "tollgate") process, or some other well-established (but relatively slow) methodology, you can give your approach a waste-eliminating tune up.
       We propose a set of twelve waste-slashing Lean Methods that can take you from slow-and-steady to quick-and-agile. Each method addresses a different aspect of the product development process: the harvesting of initial customer inputs, the planning of a development project, resource allocation and prioritization, time and workflow management, and several practical techniques for improved organization, communication, and execution. All methods are intuitive, team-friendly, and designed for flexibility. Furthermore, all of our lean product development methods are intended to guide you toward what we consider to be a waste-free ideal; the Continuous-Flow Development Process illustrated in the figure below. Yes, it does resemble a phase-and-gate process, but with significant "enhancements" that reduce non-value-added waste, while taking into account change control, resource availability, and above all else, the critical path of the development project. Rather than imposing arbitrary "time-batch" phases and disruptive formal gate reviews, the continuous-flow process is driven by the nature of the design itself. What decisions must be made? When must requirements be frozen? Which activities drive schedule from both a lead-time and resource availability standpoint?
        For more information about the continuous-flow development process and the twelve lean product development methods, please visit "A Sampling of Tools and Methods," and for an interview with our president, Ron Mascitelli, PMP, that answers frequently asked questions about Lean Product Development, please visit our "Articles" page.