Delivering
"Lean"
and
Mean
New
Product Development
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| Freedom from Terminal Sameness
Newsletter - Issue #65 |
September 2010 |
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Most are familiar
with Lean Manufacturing today,
a concept brought into the limelight through the Toyota Production
System
(TPS). Henry Ford was actually one of the earliest "Lean thinkers" with
the notion
of an assembly line. In it's early form this waste elimination concept
was
considered only applicable to manufacturing. Today it has expanded into
areas
that include healthcare, government, construction and services to name
a few.
The application in New Product Development (NPD) is a relatively new
area that
has significant opportunity for improving development time, quality and
predictability while reducing developments costs. It is easy to
say Lean cannot
apply to the non-repetitive engineering and invention aspects of NPD;
that's
not right, it's just easy to say.
Jeff Jorvig
New Product Execution Coach
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Items
of Interest to New Product Development Teams
Leadership Quote of
the month:
"Leaders
take risks. That's not to say that they are reckless, because good
leaders aren't. But they don't always take the safest route. Rarely can
a person break ground and play it safe at the same time. Often, leaders
must take others into the unknown, march them off the map. Look at wise
leaders who take risks, and you will find that they: Gather information
wisely. Risk from strength. Prepare thoroughly. Fail successfully.
Display flexibility."
-- John Maxwell
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NPD
Execution Quick Tip
Putting an end to Terminal Sameness in new
product execution:
- Avoid believing that you can't make it better
because it's out of your control.
- Avoid assigning blame elsewhere. If it's
impacting you and you are not doing anything about it, you are at fault!
- Avoid forcing a generic top down, fix all
solution. A real solution is unique and will be found with a bottom up
approach.
- Avoid accepting a situation that is known to be
a real problem.
- Avoid assuming that solutions are contained
within a single functional area.
- Avoid being closed minded about solutions that
challenge your ego. Much can be learned through the eyes of others.
- Avoid believing that nothing will ever change -
beliefs have a way of driving the reality.
- Avoid quick judgments on alternatives. If it
makes you uncomfortable it just may be something of significant value.
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Delivering Lean and Mean New
Product Development
Let's start off with defining what lean is; put simply, it
is about improving efficiency by eliminating waste. The inefficiencies
can be in the form of the use of people's time, inadequate tools,
rework, overdone requirements, non-value steps/activities/meetings and
so on.
Waste can be found in many areas, mostly buried and out of sight.
Consider Lean
as nothing more than creating a culture to drive higher levels of
efficiency on
a continuing basis.
There is plenty of opportunity for leaning up in new product
efforts. The scope of any Lean effort must cover the entire development
process
from initial customer contact to a volume revenue stream with that
customer. A
localized view of any subset of the total NPD process is actually
anti-lean due
to an obvious disconnection from the value stream, an error for many
improvement initiatives. Lean must be a big picture view that includes
all
functional areas, both deliverers and receivers of a common value
stream.
 The
diagram
to
the
right
represents the typical components
of a lean approach. The cycle is one of continuous learning and an
ever-evolving process based on that learning. It never ends; an
organization is
never done. As soon as there is a belief of doneness, the lean train is
derailed.
Begin a Lean journey by looking for areas where the principals can be
applied
to NPD.
Value
The focus of any new product must always be on the customer
value. For any new product you must be able to clearly identify where
the
customer value is. That is what matters, in fact that's all that
matters. Be in
the customers shoes, feel the problem to be solved. Think beyond
requirements
to include interactions, information exchanges, trust, communication
and the
needs for development of their product. You must be absolutely certain of
what the customer values in a
relationship with you on new product. Delivering all aspects of
customer
value is a distinct competitive advantage.
Identify Value Stream
Anything that does not add to the customer value is a waste;
it is outside the value stream. This is a tough one for those that
believe
everything they do is important, essentially the majority of
organizations
today. Meetings, documentation, decision processes, procedures,
reviews,
sign-offs; they are all suspect of being off the value stream in their
current
form! The value stream is only the activities, information and
deliverables
that clearly promote the customer value. Can you identify the value
stream for
new products in your organization?
Create Value Flow
Now, knowing what the value stream is, build a NPD flow that
supports that value stream. Get rid if the wasted activities, meetings
and
deliverables that do not directly enhance the customer value for new
products.
What are you doing because you have always done it? This is a great
place to
engage some good solid discovery, beginning at the bottom and working
up.
Creation of the value flow will not be for the faint of heart; every
activity
today is already assumed to be valuable and there are people and
bruised ego's
to deal with. The output of this phase should be a development flow
that is
highly efficient in bringing value to the customer at the quickest pace
and the
lowest cost.
Establish Pull
This one is a little tricky for NPD. Establishing pull means
that deliverables are completed at the latest time possible, where the
greatest
amount of information is available. Today most are focused on getting
everything done ASAP and queued up before it's needed, essentially
creating
inventory and a push forward. A pull is more like JIT (Just in Time),
where
tasks and deliverables are completed as needed, at the maximum point of
knowledge for the task. Think of pull as tasks that are demand driven.
For NPD
a pull mindset will have a significant impact on quality and rework.
How much
is being redone because of not knowing what was needed the first time?
Pushing
tasks creates rework!
Seek perfection
To seek perfection is a course of continuous
improvement. The lean process is never done and ever evolving, always
improving
upon knowledge from previous projects. Perfection does not just happen;
it is
asymptotically being approached with every new project. Lean NPD is a
journey, not a destination.
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| How we
can Help
"Providing
solutions to the systemic project challenges that quietly steal early
revenue opportunity - Put simply, a cure for Terminal Sameness"
If you want new
product execution to be
significantly better than it has been and are reaching out for
solutions, you
have found the right place!
- What do you want to be different in new product
execution?
- How would a successful implementation of that
difference be noticed by the business? What would success look like?
- Contact me via email,
or
phone at
480-442-6730.
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Feedback
To increase the value of this newsletter for you
I would like to hear your comments.
- What do you like or not like about this
newsletter?
- What subjects would you like to see covered in
the future?
- How is the format?
- Ask me a question related to new product
development and I will anonymously post and answer it here in this
section.
Please email me here with any questions,
comments or suggestions that will help me better serve my readers. I
would enjoy hearing from you.
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