An online networking resource for product development professionals
Getting started....
Hello to all!
I'm a LSS BB with a new initiative to "lean out the NPI process". For years, in other job functions I was unsatisfied with the PS process. In particular our projects took soooo lllooonnnggg, and frequently our product had some kind of a problem in the final QA or post launch that took us back to the development phase.
I circulated a bunch of books on the Toyota lean pd, and got mixrd reaction, and no change (of course). Well, after pushing the concepts long enough, I've broken down resistance to the idea, and have initiated our journey.
We chose a project to use as a pilot, and so far I've presented the idea of wastes to the team. I'm trying to get people to look at things differently, just to get started.
I'm going to try to get out to the event in Chicago. However, thought I'd ask all of you how you got started, how did you measure progress, set up and rewards, etc..?? Any input will be welcomed
I'm a LSS BB with a new initiative to "lean out the NPI process". For years, in other job functions I was unsatisfied with the PS process. In particular our projects took soooo lllooonnnggg, and frequently our product had some kind of a problem in the final QA or post launch that took us back to the development phase.
I circulated a bunch of books on the Toyota lean pd, and got mixrd reaction, and no change (of course). Well, after pushing the concepts long enough, I've broken down resistance to the idea, and have initiated our journey.
We chose a project to use as a pilot, and so far I've presented the idea of wastes to the team. I'm trying to get people to look at things differently, just to get started.
I'm going to try to get out to the event in Chicago. However, thought I'd ask all of you how you got started, how did you measure progress, set up and rewards, etc..?? Any input will be welcomed
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Robert May on -
Hi Dan,
We got started by 1st diagnosing our past Programs - we did surveys, interviews, gathered schedule, quality, cost data along with some competitive data and compiled what in hindsight has turned out to be a very important insight into root causes - at the systemic level. Its a huge Change management lever when 95% of your stakeholders see the conclusions and say - "yep that's us".
Its a little ironic - but you could apply the lean mindset to why you want to apply Lean - ask yourself "What problem are you trying to solve ?"
This approach has played a big part in our start along a lean Journey in Product Development.
Hope this helps
Regards
-
Permalink Reply by Brent Wahba on -
Dan, a few points to ponder:
1) Lean Product Development is mainly about creating more valuable knowledge. Understanding waste is important, but companies go out of business by not focusing enough on creating more customer value. That comes from efficiently applying valuable knowledge.
2) Companies very rarely create change by following others' paths and tools. True change comes from the owners of a process learning how to improve their process using the scientific method (PDCA). You can learn a lot from Toyota, but this initiative could go very badly if you try too hard to copy Toyota or anyone else for that matter.
3) Product development is everything from strategic planning, marketing, R&D, product design, service design, to implementing production value streams. Many companies think too narrowly about Lean PD and miss out on the benefits of integration.
4) Dan's point about "what problem are you trying to solve?" fits in well here. Once you know the problem, then you need to understand what the cross-functional process or value stream is that is causing that problem AND what thought process generated the problem to begin with. Being lean is not about using lean tools, it's about changing how people think. That comes with deep introspection and learning.
5) Take off your SS hat for a moment and don’t try to measure the whole PD process. It is usually hard to find a comparable baseline project for your pilot and all improvement projects are biased (some of the improvement is from plain and simple focus, not the actual methodology). You can, however, measure and improve little bits. This drives management nuts, but lean is somewhat of a leap of faith that doing the right things, making small, medium, and large changes will win in the end. Also, as I mentioned in 1), your lean projects should be generating more valuable knowledge. This is hard to measure and sometimes only pays off in future projects.
Feel free to contact me if you ever want to chat about this,
Brent
brentwahba@strategyscienceinc.com
-
Permalink Reply by Dan on
-
Thank you for your and Robert's advice.
Making sure wqe know what problem we are solving is important. We think it is "Our product development cycle is too long and we miss windows of opportunity".
Brent, you are so right in that the product development cycle includes all those elements. We do loose a lot of time and energy in the marketing/lab debate of what is needed vs what can be done.
Since my original post the team did create a "Field Guide" we provided to all employees which took our experiences and boiled them down to brief statements for future teams to apply. For example- we dicussed parallel activites, or use of crude samples.
About
© 2010 Created by Alex Cooper on Ning. Create a Ning Network!
