Concepts and Tools for Lean Development
One Day Overview
“Lean Development” means different
things to different organizations. Some
organizations are “design-to-order”, where each customer order requires some
amount of design effort. In such
companies, customer requirements tend to be well defined, and the design effort
typically involves the reuse of existing technologies that will be adapted to
meet the needs of specific customers.
Other companies engage in longer term “research and development”. New technologies must be developed, requiring
greater study, testing and time, perhaps years to bring to market. And there are companies that lie somewhere in
between. Regardless, all organizations
need to be familiar with the “Lean Development Toolbox”. There are numerous tools in
the “toolbox". Companies must
determine which ones will be most helpful in their particular
applications. This one-day overview covers all of the key concepts, and
the tools that are available.
Voice of the Customer tools such as Quality Function
Deployment (QFD) can help companies get off on the right track at
the start of the development process. Target Costing is a concept
that should be initiated at the beginning of a project and followed
throughout. Costing models must be
developed to monitor projected costs to verify that target costs can be
met. Set Based Concurrent Engineering
(SBCE) is a concept that should be put into practice early during the “study”
phase of the development process. It is
during this phase that different design alternatives are identified and
studied. Design of Experiments (DOE) can
help developers learn in more efficient ways during the "study"
phase. Methods to help select a “solution” among the alternatives under
consideration must be available.
Trade-off curves and the Pugh Matrix are two such techniques.
Developers should be familiar with techniques that
result in “robust” designs that will be more assured to meet customer expectations. These include Taguchi techniques, including
System Design, Parameter Design, Tolerance Design, and Taguchi’s Loss
Function. Design Failure Mode Effect
& Analysis (DFMEA) can help to insure robustness as well. Here possible failures are considered and
countermeasures are proactively included in the design. Design for Manufacturing & Assembly
(DFMA) can insure that manufacturing capabilities are considered while the
product is still being designed, as can 3P events. A 3P (Production
Preparation Process) event is a kaizen event where a cross-functional team
works to develop the details of a design while simultaneously developing the
production process. The result is a
design that is producible and will be more cost effective when transferred to
production.
Of course, Project Management techniques are required
to manage development projects over time.
These techniques go beyond scheduling systems, and establishing
“milestones”. Effective and efficient
communication techniques can be put into practice that will insure
success. These include visual management
techniques, and methods to capture and share knowledge. The one-day workshop can be expanded to
include an on-site assessment of current familiarity and capabilities with the
various tools, identify “gaps” in their application, and to develop a plan
going forward.
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Leaning the Product Development Process
Through Value Stream Mapping
Event
“Problem Solving” is identified as one of the
three primary values streams in “Lean Thinking” (Womack, Jones). It can also be the one with the most
potential value to the organization. The
decisions made during the design process have significant and long term impact
on cost and quality, as well as the ability of the organization to service its
markets. Further, as an organization
“leans out” other areas of the business and frees up capacity in the office and
in manufacturing the question that arises is “how do we leverage this new
capacity into delivering more value to the market?” Most often the answer is to
develop new products and enter new markets.
However,
a company may have an inefficient or ineffective design process that will
become overwhelmed with even a slight increase in design related projects. Therefore, it may wish to conduct an actual
Value Stream Mapping event of its design process. Such an event can serve as a springboard for
a serious effort to “lean out” the product design process over time.
A particular design project or
projects can be the subject of the event.
A cross functional team of 6 - 8 people will participate in the event to
develop current and future state maps, as well as an implementation plan to
make the future state a reality. A
review of value stream mapping is provided to develop the necessary skills of
the participants to create a “current state map” of the existing design
process. Then a thorough review of Lean
Product Design concepts is provided.
Concepts reviewed include: “voice of the customer”, knowledge re-use,
rapid learning cycles, narrowing design alternatives, concurrent engineering,
standard work, and flow processing.
Contrasts to traditional design methodologies are also explored.
The
Lean Product Design concepts are applied to develop a lean “future state map”
for the product design process. This is
done in the context of seven future state questions – a structured approach to
design the new process. Participants
will learn in-depth the intent of each question, while expanding their
understanding of the basic lean concepts of value, flow, pull, leveling and
“pitch”. The concepts reviewed can also
be applied to transaction oriented design related processes such as
configuration control, engineering change orders, product validation, design
release, etc.
Typically, the team develops
a 90-day implementation plan that identifies a series of improvement efforts or
“kaizens” that will be completed. Specific kaizen events are scheduled,
responsibilities are assigned, and follow-up is planned for. The expectation is that the organization will
begin to see important benefits within the 90 day period. Beyond that, another 90-day plan is
developed, and possibly another future state map, as the organization gains
greater experience in applying lean and it continuously strives to improve the
design process.
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Typical
Event Agenda
Pre-event: Scoping Exercise – to prepare for the
mapping event
Day
1: Education in Value Stream Mapping and the basic lean
concepts as applied to the product design process
Day
2: Develop
Day 3: Develop
Develop
Implementation Plan
Post-Event: Periodic follow-up,
progress review, direction, kaizen facilitation
Typical
Deliverables
·
A Current State
Map of the design process
·
A Future State Map
that visually depicts the recommendations for improvement, as well as the
projected benefits
·
An Implementation
Plan to make the future state a reality
·
A cross
functional team that has practical experience in Value Stream Mapping, and the
means by which Lean Enterprise concepts can be applied to design processes.
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Leaning the Product Development Process
Through Value Stream Mapping
One Day Workshop
“Problem Solving” is identified as one of the
three primary values streams in “Lean Thinking” (Womack, Jones). It can also be the one with the most
potential value to the organization. The
decisions made during the design process have significant and long term impact
on cost and quality, as well as the ability of the organization to service its
markets. Further, as an organization
“leans out” other areas of the business and frees up capacity in the office and
in manufacturing the question that arises is “how do we leverage this new
capacity into delivering more value to the market?” Most often the answer is to
develop new products and enter new markets.
This
workshop demonstrates how the Product Design process can be re-designed based
on lean concepts using value stream mapping.
A review of value stream mapping is provided to develop the necessary
skills of the participants to create a “current state map” of the existing
design process. Then a thorough review
of Lean Product Design concepts is provided.
Concepts reviewed include: “voice of the customer”, re-using existing
knowledge, rapid learning cycles, narrowing design alternatives, concurrent
engineering, standard work, and flow processing. Contrasts to traditional design methodologies
are also explored.
The
Lean Product Design concepts are applied to develop a lean “future state map”
for the product design process. This is
done in the context of seven future state questions – a structured approach to
design the new process. Participants
will learn in-depth the intent of each question, while expanding their
understanding of the basic lean concepts of value, flow, pull, leveling and
“pitch”.
Finally,
implementation strategies will be reviewed to successfully implement the
envisioned future state. A case study
will be provided to help hone the participants’ value stream mapping skills. The concepts reviewed can also be applied to
transaction oriented design related processes such as configuration control,
engineering change orders, product validation, design release, etc.
The
workshop is based on the book “Value Stream Mapping the Lean Development
Process: A How-to Guide to Streamlining Time to Market” by Drew Locher
(Productivity Press, 2008).
Duration: One day
Who should attend:
anyone in an organization who designs products or delivers engineering
services, including management. Product
Designers, engineering support personnel, even representatives from
manufacturing, purchasing and cost accounting can benefit by attending this
workshop.
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Managing
and Leading the Development Process
Workshop
& Application Event
Management of the development process requires a specific
set of skills and techniques. Certainly
project management techniques must be applied.
Key activities must be identified as well as the responsibility for
completing each. The duration for each
activity must be estimated, and the relationships between activities
considered. Key milestones are
identified and monitored to determine if a project is or is not on
schedule. Unfortunately, this is where
the management activity begins and ends in most companies. There is so much more.
First, it is imperative that the desired behaviors are
exhibited throughout the development process.
The responsibility for this falls on the project managers and
development managers in general.
Concepts such as “Set Based Concurrent Engineering (SBCE)” do not happen
by chance. Developers must be encouraged
to practice it. They must be given
“space” to “play” and to consider different alternatives. Desired experimentation must be budgeted for,
including time and money.
Development
managers must practice and teach “critical thinking” and the scientific method
of “Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)”. This
represents a transition of roles from “manager” to leader”. Managers must insure that effective
communication and knowledge sharing takes place throughout the project, as well
as beyond. This is accomplished through
time tested visual management techniques.
Such techniques have been used for decades to help manage complex
projects such as those found in aerospace.
However, they are effective when applied to projects of any scope and
scale. A3 report writing is another
technique that can be used to facilitate the management of the development
process or project. Through simple
one-page documents managers can monitor the progress of a project, provided
necessary direction or mentoring, and capture and share knowledge within a
development team or beyond.
The
key management and leadership concepts will be reviewed with appropriate
individuals in an organization, typically those in development leadership
roles. They will then be expected to
apply the concepts within their development process and/or on specific
projects. Typically one to two months is
required to initially apply the various techniques. Additional follow-up and mentoring is often
required. Therefore, the application
event usually consists of 3 to 4 days over several months.
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3P
Kaizen Event
5
day Event
3P stands for “Production Preparation Process”. A 3P kaizen event is where the product
development and manufacturing process design are merged. A cross functional team is assembled with
representatives from both design and production. A 3P kaizen event can be conducted for a new
product, a design change to an existing product, or a change in demand for a
product. Ideas from nature and other
industries are identified to get the team to “think out of the box”. The team will go through a disciplined,
methodical procedure to facilitate the rapid evaluation of ideas for product
design and production processes.
A major element of 3P is to design by rapid
prototype. It involves hands-on
experimentation of not just the product design but the means to manufacture
it. This method has been called “Trystorming”.
Instead of simply brainstorming – the creation of ideas – trystorming puts to test the ideas under consideration in
order to more effectively assess them.
For trystorming to work, effective and
efficient means to assess ideas must be provided. Sometimes this has been called “rapid
prototyping”. 3P allows you to try a
solution, not just simply developing an engineering drawing. The key is to prototype not just the product,
but also the manufacturing process.
Methods that allow for rapid prototyping can be as simple
as manufacturing “mock-ups” of production equipment, or actual prototype shops
with near-production or even production like equipment available for
experimentation. Techniques for
developing product prototypes can be as simple as models of the product made
from inexpensive and readily available materials to stereo-lithography
techniques that take mock-ups and make near production ready samples. Therefore, adequate planning and preparations
must be made prior to the 3P event.
Dedicated resources must be provided during the event, or at least ready
access to needed resources.
Typical
Event Agenda
Pre-event: Develop charter, initiate
preparations for the 3P event
Day
1: Education in 3P
Review
team charter
Identify
examples from nature
Day
2: Develop seven concepts, share, assess, select several
(typically 3)
Initiate experimentation and assess results for each
Days 3 - 4: Continued experimentation, narrowing and final
selection
Day 5: Generate event documentation
Develop “next steps”
Report
out
Post-Event: Periodic follow-up,
progress review, direction, kaizen facilitation
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Quality
Management Tools for Lean Development
Workshop
and Application Event
There are several important quality management tools
that are particularly applicable to the development process. Companies engaged in design activities of all
types should be familiar with them, and capable of putting them into
practice. These include: Quality
Function Deployment (QFD), Design of Experiments (DOE), and Process Capability
Studies.
Quality
Function Deployment (QFD) is the systematic translation of customer
requirements into appropriate technical design requirements at each stage of
Product Development, including the transition to production and the development
of manufacturing processes. It makes use
of the “House of Quality” that provides a methodology to successfully meet this
critical objective. Companies that
practice QFD “partner” with key customers to accurately and fully understand
customer requirements (also called obtaining the “voice of the customer”). Once the design team has obtained the
valuable information regarding customer requirements, it can proceed with the
design effort.
Design of Experiments (DOE) is a methodology to design
effective and efficient test strategies.
Most designers and developers practice the One-at-a-Time (OAAT) approach
during testing. Here one variable is
changed at a time and the effects assessed.
However, this approach can require excessive testing, and can provide
misleading results. Techniques have been
developed over 100 years ago based on sound statistical methods. Methods for analyzing data from experiments
must be used including regression analysis and Analysis of Variance
(ANOVA).
Designers should not simply attempt to control product
quality by applying tolerances to various design features without consideration
of existing process capability. This is where
Process Capability studies come into play.
Too many companies are unaware of the capabilities of their various
production processes, or those of their suppliers. This results in additional costs and quality
problems.
This one-day workshop will cover these three important
tools. It can be expanded to allow for
application of all of the concepts to real world situations.
Who
should attend: anyone in an organization
who is involved in the design and development process. Product Designers, even representatives from
manufacturing, quality assurance, purchasing and management can benefit by
attending this workshop
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Management Associates Tele: 856-235-8051 • Website:
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