1st Edition

The Mastery of Innovation A Field Guide to Lean Product Development

By Katherine Radeka Copyright 2013
    265 Pages 38 B/W Illustrations
    by Productivity Press

    What do Ford Motor Company, Steelcase, Scania, Goodyear, Novo Nordisk, and Philips Electronics have in common? They all need to get their best ideas to market as fast as possible. They need to achieve the mastery of innovation.

    When these companies needed to accelerate time-to-market, get more new products to customers, and improve their ROI from investments in R&D, they turned to Lean Product Development to help them master the process of innovation. By adapting Lean ideas to their specific product development challenges, they learned how to focus innovation on the problems that would maximize customer and business value, and deliver on their best ideas.

    Winner of a Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award!

    The Mastery of Innovation: A Field Guide to Lean Product Development describes the experiences of 19 companies that have achieved significant results from Lean Product Development. Their stories show that Lean Product Development delivers results:

    • Ford Motor Company completely reinvented its Global Product Development System and put decades of knowledge about automotive design at its engineers’ fingertips
    • DJO Global, a medical device company, more than tripled the number of products they released to the market and cut development time by 60%
    • Playworld Systems cut time-to-market in half–twice

    The diverse set of North American and European case studies in this book range from very small product development organizations (three engineers) to very large (more than 10,000). Some of the industries represented include automotive, medical devices, industrial products, consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, scientific instruments, and aerospace.

    These companies have generously shared their knowledge about Lean Product Development to help you get your best ideas to market faster.

    LEAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: THE MASTERY OF INNOVATION

    Lean Product Development: The Mastery of Innovation
    The Definition of Lean Product Development
    We Already Do All of This—Have We Mastered Innovation?
    How Does Lean Product Development Deliver Results?
    The Engine of Knowledge Creation

    Value and Waste in Product Development
    Value-Creating Activities and Waste
    Value and Waste in Product Development
    The Four Value Streams of Lean Product Development

    The Lean Product Development Benchmarking Study
    Where Did These Companies Come from?
    A Diverse Set of Companies
    What Surprised Me
    Suggestions for Using the Case Studies

    THE PIONEERS OF LEAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

    DJO Global: The Fundamentals of Lean Product Development
    Lean Product Development at DJO
    Protostorming
    LAMDA and A3 Problem Solving in Product Development
    Metrics to Drive a Lean Product Development Culture
    Results and Next Steps

    Scania Technical Centre: A Pioneering Lean Product Development Champion
    Lean Product Development at Scania
    Lean Improvement Coaches
    Product Development Team Engagement
    Product Development Leadership at Scania
    Visual Planning

    Ford Motor Company: How to Revitalize an American Icon
    Lean Product Development at Ford
    The Chief Engineer
    Example: Reducing Wind Noise
    Results and Next Steps

    LEAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TO MAKE THE RIGHT PRODUCTS

    Buckeye Technologies: Lean Tools for Strategic Alignment
    Lean Product Development at Buckeye
    Systematic Problem Solving for Product Strategy Development
    The Power of Pull Factors
    Lean Ideation with Convergence
    Results and Next Steps

    Steelcase: Go-and-See New Customers to Open New Markets
    Lean Product Development at Steelcase
    Customer Intimacy Intelligence in Action
    Go-and-See
    Value and Price Validation
    Value-Driven Design
    Results

    Philips: Comprehensive Lean Scheduling
    Lean Product Development at Philips Consumer Lifestyle
    Lean Scheduling
    Team-Based Planning Process
    Status Updates
    Results and Next Steps

    LEAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TO MAKE PRODUCTS BETTER, FASTER, CHEAPER

    Novo Nordisk: Metrics to Drive Change
    cLEAN®: Lean at Novo Nordisk
    The Interpretation of Lean at Novo Nordisk R & D: Six Basic Principles
    Transactional versus Knowledge Creation Processes
    Critical Questions Mapping
    Keeping Progress Visible: Metrics and KPIs
    Results and Next Steps

    Visteon: Knowledge at the Engineer’s Fingertips
    Lean Product Development at Visteon
    Simple Process Models
    Lean Process Audits
    Reusable Knowledge
    Results and Next Steps

    A-dec: Project Chiefs to Speed Decision Making
    Lean Product Development at A-dec
    First Step: Team Leadership
    The Project Chief
    Product Development Organizational Structure
    Go-and-See Customer Visits
    Results and Next Steps

    LEAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TRANSFORMATION

    Nielsen-Kellerman: Just Start Somewhere
    Lean Product Development at Nielsen Kellerman
    Inefficient Meetings: Visual Project Planning
    Knowledge Capture and Retrieval: The Knowledge Library
    Nielsen-Kellerman’s Product Development Process
    Systematic Problem Solving to Solve Technical Problems
    Results

    Vaisala: From Pilot Projects to Global Transformation
    Lean Product Development at Vaisala
    Vaisala’s Countermeasure for Travel Expense Allocation
    Product Portfolio Management
    Widespread Training
    Vaisala’s Next Steps

    Playworld Systems: How to Cut Time to Market in Half—Twice
    The Need for Speed and Predictability
    First Attempts with Lean Thinking in Product Development
    Lean Product Development at Playworld
    Cutting Time to Market in Half—Twice
    What’s Next for Playworld?

    THE PATH OF INNOVATION MASTERY

    The Path of Mastery: How to Begin with Lean Product Development
    How Long Will It Take?
    The Phases of Lean Transformation
    Start Wherever You Are
    Epilogue: Just Start Somewhere, Just Do Something
    Appendix 1: The Mastery of Innovation Self-Assessment
    Appendix 2: A Guide for Book Study Groups
    Appendix 3: List of Participating Companies
    Appendix 4: Suggested Reading List and Other Resources

    Index


    Biography

    Katherine Radeka has a rare combination of business acumen, scientific depth, and the ability to untangle the organizational knots and remove the barriers to change. In the past seven years, her consulting firm, Whittier Consulting Group, Inc., has engaged with clients such as Steelcase, Hewlett- Packard, and more than 50 other leading organizations.

    In 2010 and 2011, Katherine conducted the Lean Product Development Benchmarking Study to document Lean Product Development practices at more than 60 companies in North America and Europe. In 2005, she logged more than 11,000 miles driving around the country to research how the best companies got more ROI from product development. In 2007, she co-founded the Lean Product & Process Development Exchange, a nonprofit organization to promote the use of Lean Thinking to improve ROI from product development.

    Katherine has climbed seven of the tallest peaks in the Cascade Mountains and spent 10 days alone on the Pacific Crest Trail until an encounter with a bear convinced her that she needed a change in strategic direction.