The Lean Product Development Revolution 

Event Summaries—Summary of an Audio Session by Don Reinertsen, Reinertsen and Associates
Don Reinertsen is principal of Reinertsen and Associates, which offers consulting services and training on the subject of rapid product development. He has authored the book Developing Products in Half the Time (with Preston Smith) and Managing the Design Factory. In this audio session, Reinertsen outlined some of the basic principles of lean product development and how it differs from lean manufacturing. He first defines three schools of lean and points out two major misconceptions about lean product development. He then discusses core lean principles such as queue management; calculating the cost of delay; batch size reduction; and work-in-process constraints. Reinertsen completes the session by drawing a contrast between traditional and lean product development and outlining four steps for moving toward a lean process.
(6 pages)

At Lean Conference Practitioners Report that Learning is the Basis of Measurable Results  

Event Summaries—Overview of the Management Roundtable’s Second Annual Lean Product Development Summit, Chicago, June 6 and 7, 2007.
Experts and practitioners alike emphasized the importance of learning in creating a lean environment for new product development, at this second annual conference.  Keynote speaker Don Reinertsen, President of Reinertsen and Associates, emphasized the need to question received wisdom; the example of no single company, however successful, can serve as an off-the-shelf template for lean product development, he advised.  Another keynote speaker, Mary Poppendieck, President of Poppendieck LLC, discussed how the avoidance of the “batch and queue” approach and a focus on information flow are keys to lean. Case studies from SRAM Corporation, Badger Meter, Inc., Kennametal, Inc., Corbis Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics, Critical Point Group, Steelcase, Inc., and Boeing Commercial Airplane Group provided real world examples of how lean depends on continuous learning. The case studies examined the role of lean change agents; means of managing work in process; the importance of visual learning in creating a lean focus; how to capture learning from project to project; and how focusing on the critical few project indicators can be a key to slicing time and costs.
(7 pages)

Must Changing Priorities Always Hurt? 

Feature Articles—By Don Reinertsen, Reinertsen & Associates
“Almost every product developer confronts the challenge of changing priorities,” observes product development expert Don Reinertsen. “Some of these priority shifts are warranted, but others are quite unnecessary.” In this article, Reinertsen posits that unnecessary shifts in priorities occur for two major reasons. One reason has to do with how priorities are established and how they are communicated throughout the broader organization. When priorities are grounded upon a foundation of mere personal preference they are more likely to shift. The other major cause of unnecessary changes in priorities is grounded in the development process itself. “Just as the way we operate a factory makes it more or less responsive to shifts in demand, the way we operate a development process can increase the likelihood of priority shifts,” writes Reinertsen. He provides a brief discussion of each of these two issues and suggests high-level solutions to both challenges. 
(3 pages)

Using Queuing Theory and Smaller Batch Sizes to Reduce Cycle Time 

Presentations—A presentation by Jeff H. Coult, Senior Technical Manager, Honeywell Aerospace
This presentation examines two examples of the application of Lean principles to product development at Honeywell Aerospace. When faced with a bottleneck in its CAD group, Honeywell Aerospace discovered that there was little to be gained through improving its process – the issue was the queue going into the CAD group. To understand the problem more fully, the group examined a few key programs and estimated the lost sales opportunity created by the large queue – one of which amounted to about $1.5 million per month. Says Honeywell’s Jeff Coult, “The lost opportunity for that one program was enough to justify the added cost of bringing in contract help to work down the queue.” Honeywell Aerospace eventually added one full-time person to the CAD group and developed relationships with contract houses to provide temporary help as needed. The result was the elimination of the queue, the stabilization of the workload and an increase in customer satisfaction. The second example from Honeywell Aerospace addressed the concept of small batch sizes. By divided up its qualification testing into smaller “batches,” and performing these smaller test batches earlier in the process, the company was able to shave two weeks off of the qualification testing cycle. 
(11 Pages)

Bringing the Value of Lean to Product Development: Audio Session Transcript  

Presentations, Transcripts—In this presentation, Mark Thut of consultancy PRTM presents a comprehensive model for Lean product development (LPD). He presents empirical data arguing that product development organizations have reached the point of diminishing returns through the application of phase-gate processes, cross-functional teams and other traditional methods. As a result, many organizations have started to apply Lean principles to product development in order to reach the next level of capability. Thut presents a top-down model for LPD including common failure modes; a list of areas within product development where waste tends to creep in; a model for the various organizational levels at which LPD is applied; specific examples from Lean product development organizations, along with the measurable results they have achieved. Download the presentation slides (44 slides) here and then download the transcript below (20 pages).

Bringing the Value of Lean to Product Development: Audio Session Summary  

Event Summaries, Presentations—Related Links:  Transcript (20 pages) | Audio (mp3) | Slides

In this presentation, Mark Thut of consultancy PRTM presents a comprehensive model for Lean product development (LPD). He presents empirical data arguing that product development organizations have reached the point of diminishing returns through the application of phase-gate processes, cross-functional teams and other traditional methods. As a result, many organizations have started to apply Lean principles to product development in order to reach the next level of capability. Thut presents a top-down model for LPD including common failure modes; a list of areas within product development where waste tends to creep in; a model for the various organizational levels at which LPD is applied; specific examples from Lean product development organizations, along with the measurable results they have achieved. 
(8 pages).

Lean Product Development:  A Framework & Overview 

This secondary research report presents several different definitions of Lean Product Development derived from experts such as Michael Kennedy and Don Reinertsen.  It reviews the roots of Lean in the Toyota Production System and discusses the relationship between that System and its extensions into the product development domain.  The report concludes that, whatever their differences, the several definitions of Lean display a family resemblance centering on a sustained focus on eliminating waste and increasing efficiencies; a focus on customer value; a division of activities into value-added and non-value added; decision-making based on economics rather than abstract principles (e.g. “late changes are always bad,” “avoid rework”); and an emphasis on built-in learning and continuous improvement.
(5 pages)

Boston Scientific Corporation: Successful Lean Product Development Boosts Efficiency 

Case Studies—In this report, Philip J. Ebeling, Director of Program Management, Lean Product Development at Boston Scientific Corporation’s Maple Grove, Minnesota facility describes his company’s successful Lean product development implementation. Boston Scientific turned to Lean to help reduce product development investment, while still managing risk and market requirements. According to Ebeling, Boston Scientific adopted a custom approach to Lean, using a hybrid of Toyota’s product development system and abstract ideas from the Lean literature, integrated with best practices in product development. Boston Scientific chose three Lean tools and focused its energies on learning and applying this small set in order to achieve quick wins. Having proved the case for Lean, the company achieved marked success applying its principles to team performance. As Lean has spread to other projects, Boston Scientific has enjoyed improvements across the dimensions of cost, schedule and performance.
(6 pages)

Designing for LeanSigma Helps Hubbell Change the Game 

Case Studies—Hubbell Premise Wiring, developers of an array of products in the telecommunications industry, created a game-changing new offering in a technology that has not changed in 80 years.  Along the way, they also slashed their product development cycle from around 20 months to 11 months.  They achieved this by applying Design for LeanSigma within a highly motivated team.  This report, authored by participants in this effort, presents an overview of how Hubbell applied LeanSigma principles in three areas: Voice of the Customer, Design Kaizen and Production Preparation. 
(5 pages)

Lean Product Development The Toyota Way: A Conversation with Michael Kennedy 

Interviews—In this December 2006 interview, Michael Kennedy, author of Product Development for the Lean Enterprise discusses the four cornerstones of the Toyota product development system.  Kennedy describes how Toyota creates world-class cars without a formal development process, without administrative program managers, and without schedule slips.  The key, says Kennedy, is in a process that emphasizes learning first.  Toyota continually prototypes and tests to probe the limits of a given technology and the design tradeoffs associated with it.  These tradeoffs, visually displayed in the form of “limit curves,” become the basis of decision-making at Toyota.  Toyota Chief Engineers, the internal representative for the customer, are the decision-makers with respect to a given product.  They are not administrators, but subject matter experts. Toyota also has a simple but effective way of managing knowledge that maximizes reuse and allows engineers to avoid reinventing the wheel.  According to Kennedy: “Toyota has been effectively developing knowledge for next year’s Camry for over twenty years. Product development must be thought of as the long-term, targeted development of product knowledge.”
(6 pages)