A copy of a presentation I gave at CONNSTEP's 2010 Manufacturing and Business Conference in Hartford, CT on Lean Product Development.

1. Lean Product Development
Process
Tim McMahon
OFS Fitel

2. Exercise
• Stand
• Fold your arms
• Which arm is on top?
• Unfold your arms and refold them with the
opposite arm on top.
• Some will find it easy. Some may not.
• Does the new position feel comfortable?

3. Introduction
• In today’s globally competitive environment
speed is everything.
• Design teams need to be fast, flexible and
highly effective.
• Applying Lean in product development
requires optimizing the growth of knowledge
about the product, customer, and
manufacturing.

4. Definition
• Lean Product Development -
A practical approach to accelerating time-to-
market through aggressive waste elimination
in planning, resource management, design
control, and interdisciplinary communication.

5. 3 Key Elements
• Lean Product Development Process
comprises:
1. Driving waste out of the product development
process.
2. Improving the way projects are executed.
3. Visualizing the product development process.

6. Lean the Process
• By closely examining
the entire product
development process
from a Lean
perspective, the
opportunities to drive
out waste and increase
value become obvious.
• Learn to identify the
Eight Wastes
– Defects
– Over Production
– Waiting
– Non-utilized
Resources/Talent
– Transportation
– Inventory
– Motion
– Excess Processing

7. Defects
• Defects are the result of executed processes
that did not produce value.
– Incomplete information
– Quality is lacking or suspect
– Reworking product of processes
– Ambiguous information
– Inaccurate information
– Missed tolerances or specifications

8. Overproduction
• Waste from producing product that is not
currently needed or product that is not
needed at all.
– Too much detail
– Unnecessary information
– Cost overruns from excessive time
– Overlap of strategic and non-strategic projects
competing for limited resources

9. Waiting
• No value added while people wait for product
to process or product waits for people or
machines.
– Unbalanced workflow with the team
– Time spent getting approvals
– Unavailable information
– Hand offs, where we pass something to someone
else

10. Non-utilized Resources/Talent
• The waste of underutilized intelligence and
intellect are commonly referred to as
behavioral waste.
– Underutilizing people’s knowledge and creativity
– Uneven workflow resulting with some team
members overburdened while others are
underutilized

11. Transportation
• While the product is moving, no value is
added to it.
– Carrying, mailing, or even emailing documents
stops the process
– Electronic system hand offs
– Multiple sources
– Incompatible destinations requiring multiple
transport

12. Inventory
• Inventory is the collection of unprocessed
documents, data objects, and transactions
queued-up between people and processes.
– Collections of unprocessed information and data
– Incomplete content
– Too much information

13. Motion
• Excess movement by people or equipment
only consumes time and resources without
producing value.
– Efficiency of software – number of mouse clicks,
routines, and transactions
– Frequency of searching for information
– Information pushed to wrong people

14. Excess Processing
• Doing more than what is necessary to
generate satisfactory value as defined by the
customer.
– Using software that functions beyond what is
needed
– Product designs or processes that are too complex
– Excessive number of iterations or verifications
– Over-designed or over-engineered product

15. Project Execution
• In a Lean environment, the expectation is that everyone has
two responsibilities.
– First, to run the business on a day-to-day basis.
– Second, to improve the business, or contribute to improving it
continuously.
• Improvement efforts are generally categorized by the scope,
scale, and duration of the improvement task.
– Longer duration, more complex improvement tasks require the
problem solving team to utilize a project.
• How do we standardize, communicate, and visually manage
project management process effectively?
– In the Lean environment that is something called an A3.

16. A3 - What is it really?
• The A3 is a “way of thinking”.
• Complex situations broken into a simple data driven stories.
• It forces you to filter and refine your thoughts to fit on one
sheet of paper in such a way that management has all of their
major questions answered by reading a single sheet of paper.
• It is a way to coach and develop associates by providing a
forum for discussion about the specific point in the story and
the thinking behind it.
• Consensus building tool through the
department/group/company.

17. A3 Guidelines
• A good A3 should “tell a story” about a proposal,
project, problem, or process.
• It balances words with graphics to tell the story.
– Find the most effective graphics to emphasize your ideas,
plans, and/or results.
• Every word or graph on the A3 should mean
something.
• Use underlined or bold text to focus attention on key
points.

18. Characteristics of an Effective A3
• Easy to read
• Involve team members to create
• Data-driven and factual
• Clear objectives and statements
• Analysis of the situation or problem
• Cost evaluation or alternative evaluation
• Clear action plans
• Clear follow-up activities
• Share the lessons learned
– You can solve the problems, but if you don’t share what
you’ve learned, you have missed a key opportunity.

19. General A3 Flow – PDCA
Plan – Do – Check - Act

20. A3 Example

21. Make the Process Visual
• Visual boards displaying necessary
information provide a status at a glance.
• “Stand-up” meetings in combination with the
visual boards allow for optimized
communication.
• Monitor the process with metrics.

22. Flow the Process

23. See the Process

24. Keys to Visualization
• Entire system is visible
in one place.
• Weekly updates and
review at the board.
• Can see WIP in process
easily.
• Individual A3’s provide
specific project detail
on granular level.

25. Management Reviews
• Identifying, qualifying, and funding projects/programs that
address the business strategy.
• Managing organizational resource demand, capacity, and
capability.
• Measuring performance to ensure that projects/programs are
collectively meeting the portfolio strategy.
• Identifying and taking corrective actions on
projects/programs not in compliance with portfolio objectives
and commitments.
• Establishing effective communication and reporting
mechanisms that enable timely, fact-based, decision-making
regarding projects, programs, and the overall portfolio.
• Implementing a process to continuously improve the
portfolio.

26. Monitor the Metrics
• % projects on schedule
• Total value of projects in portfolio
• Total headcount assigned to the
portfolio of R&D projects
• Planned vs. Actual spend
• # projects completed
• # projects added
• # projects in each stage of the
pipeline
– Development
– Test
– Qualify
– Launch

27. Summary
• Remember that the pursuit of Lean is a
relentless journey and requires strong
commitment to change and continuous
improvement.
• A Lean Product Development Process will
drive profitable, sustain growth and customer
value creation.

28. Tim McMahon
http://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyfmcmahon
Lean Manufacturing
Leader
OFS Fitel
Avon, CT
mcmahont@ofsoptics.com
Founder & Contributor
A Lean Journey Blog
http://leanjourneytruenorth.blogs