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Weekly Blog
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3 Principles of Lean NPD |
An Introduction
Recently, the New Product Development (NPD) literature has been packed with references to "lean". One firm reports an improvement in cycle time from one year to just over five months using lean NPD methods. But, just what exactly is lean?
Lean manufacturing generally refers to the Toyota Production system, which revolutionized the automobile industry in the 1980s and 1990s. Thorough analysis of factory lay-outs, worker/machine interfaces, time queues, and spare parts/inventory management processes led to drastically improved productivity and quality measures. Soon, we began hearing about "lean enterprises," "lean office," and now "lean new product development."
Fundamentally, lean is a philosophy that shifts from a linear sequence to an integrated approach. Lean methods are designed to remove variability from the process, yet what it takes to develop a new product is very different than what it takes to maintain ongoing activities. Therefore, lean NPD should be viewed as a subset of a lean strategy for an entire production system. And, of course, lean techniques cannot turn a bad idea into a great product with high profitability.
In this paper, we will focus on three steps to lean.
1. Customer Focus,
2. Rapid Feedback, and
3. Eliminate Waste.
Learn more.
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Greetings!
Traditionally August is a time for family vacations. At Global NP Solutions, we hope you've had a wonderful summer as you get your kids and grandkids ready for to head back to school soon.
Many of you, like the United States Congress, are working on next year's budget. For a quick primer on preparing a budget, check out Get to the Point Books short on-line texts. Read more below.
Enjoy your last days of summer! |
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Innovation Fun Fact | |
Summertime is Game Time
Warm, long summer days take me back to my childhood. Playing outside in the sprinklers, eating watermelon and  mom's homemade popsicles are some of my fondest summer memories. I also spent a lot of time playing with the other kids on my street. Besides running through the sprinklers, we played whiffle ball, went roller skating, and played all kinds of board games.
Fondly, I also remember playing marbles with my neighbors and school mates. Have you ever wondered how they make marbles? Click on the photo of marbles at the right and learn how marbles are made (about a 5-minute video). |
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Recommended Reading | |
A Necessary Evil: The Budget
 Timely in the news and for corporations developing next year's new product development, R&D, and marketing budgets, please take a look at our new release with Get to the Point Books.
This quick, on-line ebook will help you learn how and why budgets are created. Like everything we do at Global NP Solutions, we recommend simple techniques.
Enjoy! |
| Best Practices in Portfolio Management | | |
An Introduction
New Product Development (NPD) in most industries today is complicated by intensive competition, rising raw material costs, advancing technologies, increasing demand for functionality, focusing on enhanced safety, and improving supply chain and distribution. Ideas come from consumers, end-users, customers, distributors, suppliers, universities, and in-house research and production staff. Products are regulated and fast-changing (note the recent development trends of nutraceuticals in the food and beverage industry). Even a small company is testing and marketing dozens of product varieties. Managing this vast array of products, ideas, and requirements is a challenge for anyone. What's a new product development practitioner to do?
Enter Portfolio Management (PM). PM is a decision-making process, utilized in conjunction with the NPD process (such as stage-gate™), to help senior management strategically align and prioritize projects to add the most value to the firm while optimizing scarce resources (people, time, money, and equipment). Selecting from the broad spectrum of available projects requires company-specific strategic criteria and guidelines to evaluate each project relative to others under consideration. Using PM to wisely choose the right projects to work leads to faster time-to-market, higher return on NPD investment, and earlier selection of exceptional projects.
Continue Reading here .
Or download the full white paper here. Download Now |
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