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Distorted views hold back lean product development

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jan 25, 2008

One of Don Reinertsen upcoming UK workshops will focus exclusively on practical and economically justifiable approaches for adopting lean product development.

When Product Development Consultant Don Reinertsen returns to the UK in September, his two workshops, organised by Smallpeice Enterprise, will cover two very distinct aspects of improving product development.

Many companies, especially in the UK, have a dangerously distorted view of lean product development, according to Don Reinertsen.

He believes that key misunderstandings are preventing companies from exploiting lean methods in product development and even some companies to totally ignore this important new opportunity to improve performance.

This is why one of his upcoming UK workshops, to be held from 3rd to 4th March 2008, will focus exclusively on practical and economically justifiable approaches for adopting lean product development.

His other workshop, to be held on the 5th to 6th March 2008, will cover rapid product development techniques.

This will look in-depth at the tools and concepts that enable individual projects to achieve faster time to market.

According to Reinertsen there is a clear distinction between the two topic areas and hence the importance of both workshops.

Rapid product development techniques concern the improvement approaches that are proven to reduce individual project cycle times and which can be readily implemented by companies without making fundamental changes to the development process.

The lean product development workshop is about understanding a fundamentally different way to think about and manage new product development (NPD); but one that can deliver far greater benefits.

Reinertsen said"Companies need to recognise the importance of lean NPD and the fact that it is the only approach that has the triple-play potential to simultaneously improve quality, efficiency and cycle time".

Crucially, Lean NPD also offers considerable credit along the way.

When the principles are understood, relatively simple and straight forward changes in approach can deliver rapid improvements for all projects in the development process.

Reinertsen is concerned about how managers and engineers, especially in the UK, perceive lean NPD.

In particular, he sees two key misunderstandings that need to be corrected within many businesses, if they are to understand and obtain the real benefits provided by lean methods.

His workshop will, in part, focus on these.

The first key misunderstanding is on the nature of waste in product development processes.

According to Reinertsen, because the primary focus for much of lean manufacturing is the elimination of wasted expenses, many companies incorrectly assume that this is also the focus of lean NPD.

This causes two problems.

First, some companies fail to even consider lean NPD because they assume it is irrelevant if they have already squeezed out most of their inefficiencies.

Second, other companies purse lean NPD but they focus the majority of their efforts on wasted expenses, which is the most trivial aspect of lean NPD.

Instead, what managers have to recognise is that real benefits of lean NPD come from creating flow.

He states "It is only by focusing on flow - not wasted expenses - that they can tap into the true potential of lean NPD".

The second key misunderstanding is that lean methods should be applied just as they were in manufacturing.

Reinertsen argues that this view is dangerously misguided and suggests that in terms of creating flow, manufacturing offers only a starting point and not always a good one.

He says, "The Toyota Production System should be recognised for what it is; an effective method for achieving flow but for a very primitive problem, that of repetitive manufacturing".

"For more complex environments, such as product development, it only offers a starting point of thinking about flow not the pinnacle of achievement".

As the workshop will illustrate, by accepting that lean NPD has to be about creating flow and recognising the major differences between manufacturing and product development, then it becomes obvious that there many other domains that have tackled the problem of creating flow in a variable process.

Reinertsen says "These domains are actually a better source of advanced ideas and methodologies than the factory floor".