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“Lean Product Development:
Making NPD Flow” is about understanding a fundamentally different way to
think about and manage New Product Development; but one that can deliver
massive process and product benefits. This workshop will enable
companies to recognise the importance of Lean NPD as a powerful approach
with the ‘triple play’ potential to simultaneously improve quality,
efficiency and cycle time. It also offers incremental bonus savings
along the way: for when the principles are understood, relatively simple
and straight forward changes in approach can deliver rapid improvements
for all projects in the development process. Yet, at present many people
have an unclear view of Lean Product Development, and key
misunderstandings are preventing companies from exploiting lean methods
in product development. This workshop aims to address these
misunderstandings, and explore the often difficult challenge of
transferring Lean principles to the world of product development. It
will also focus on providing practical and economically justifiable
approaches for adopting ‘Lean Product Development’.
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FEEDBACK FROM PREVIOUS EVENTS
As ever, the
Smallpeice conferences are excellent value for money. Don Reinertsen is an
excellent speaker - I have learnt a lot!
Operations Director
Well worthwhile
and different to standard engineering for Lean approach.
Engineering Director
Some of the
concepts presented have been introduced within the projects I am involved
in. This conference has included them under the umbrella of "Lean Product
Development", together with other concepts which I can see real value in
their implementation. An excellent learning experience!
Project Manager
Requirements
were met and well presented. Will implement many points.
Project Engineering Manager
News ideas and
thoughts. Very good speaker and chance to talk face to face. Destroyed
some myths and gave food for thought.
Quality Control Manager
Provided me with
time to think how it impacts on my business.
Product Development Manager
Logical focused
approach confirming some key issues between R&D and manufacturing lean
processes, providing additional thinking.
Production Manager |
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WORKSHOP
OBJECTIVES |
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Through group
case studies, lecture inputs & facilitated Q&A, delegates will learn how
to:
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Identify &
eliminate hidden waste in product development
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Achieve flow
& ensure that your own development process does not undermine it
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Increase
quality levels and contain costs through the effective use of rapid
feedback
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Remove
unnecessary variability, discover strategies that reduce its impact and
manage risk
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Develop a
step-by-step implementation plan to incorporate Lean principles into
your own development process
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INTRODUCTION
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Most
companies applying lean techniques to product development fail to
appreciate the critical differences between repetitive manufacturing
processes and non-repetitive development processes. These
differences mean that waste is found in very different places. Until
this is recognised, companies will only attack easily visible, but
superficial forms of waste.
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Key
Learnings
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An
overview of how lean techniques improve product development
speed, quality, and cost.
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An
understanding of the critical differences between product
development and manufacturing.
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A
clear framework for differentiating waste and value-added in
product development.
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THE
ECONOMICS OF WASTE |
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Product
developers are counselled to eliminate activities that add no value.
Yet, the biggest opportunity in product development lies in
scrutinising activities that add value. The only way to attack these
activities, which affect both cost and value, is using the tool of
quantification. We can do this with a sound economic framework
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Key
Learnings
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UNDERSTANDING VARIABILITY
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Variability is a greatly misunderstood concept in product
development. Paradoxically, you cannot add value in product
development without adding variability, but you can add variability
without adding value. A product must be changed to add value, and
this involves taking rational risks.
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Key
Learnings
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How to
distinguish between good and bad variability
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What
increases variability in product development
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How to
eliminate unnecessary variability
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How to
reduce the impact of necessary variability
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MANAGING
CAPACITY |
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Many
developers still view product development deterministically,
assuming that an excess capacity is waste. In reality, development
processes need excess capacity to function optimally in the presence
of necessary variability. Using queuing theory we can get strong
insights on how to quantify the true cost of process queues.
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Key
Learnings
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USING
BATCH SIZE |
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In manufacturing batch size reduction is the single most important
factor leading to order of magnitude reductions in cycle time. In
contrast, batch size reduction is dramatically under-utilised in
product development. |
Key
Learnings
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ACHIEVING
CADENCE |
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“Pull”-based control systems can be used to make real-time
adjustments to compensate for a limited amount of variance. However,
they are most effective when overall flows are smoothed and
synchronised with a regular process cadence. Product developers are
just beginning to use this technique in their processes.
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Key
Learnings
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USING PULL |
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Most
product development processes “push” work to downstream processes.
They try to schedule activities in great detail, at long time
horizons. This detail inherently leads to much rescheduling and
waste. In contrast, “pull”-based systems smooth flow by locally
responding to variance.
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Key
Learnings
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EXPLOITING
FEEDBACK |
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Many
product developers strive to create a development process that does
not require feedback. Yet, well-structured feedback loops actually
create spectacular opportunities to smooth flow and attain quality
levels that far exceed those of processes that try to “do it right
the first time.”
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Key
Learnings
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Why
fast feedback is critical
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How
feedback permits development processes to reduce variability
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How
well-designed feedback loops can eliminate waste
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CONTROLLING FLOW
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Flow in
product development processes differs from flow in manufacturing
because development projects have different costs-of-delay. This
creates an opportunity to use well-designed priority systems to
reduce the total cost of queues.
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Key
Learnings
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FINDING
WASTE |
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Because
product development processes add value in different ways than
manufacturing processes, waste is found in different places.
Typically, waste shows up in predictable places in development
processes.
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Key
Learnings
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IMPLEMENTATION
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The final
section will review factors that are likely to lead to successful
implementation. Course participants will begin designing a plan for
implementation.
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Key
Learnings
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