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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Change
Management Associates Tele: 856-235-8051 • Website:
cma4results.com |
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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.
|
Change
Management Associates Tele: 856-235-8051 • Website:
cma4results.com |
|
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.
|
Change
Management Associates Tele: 856-235-8051 • Website:
cma4results.com |
|