Lean Product Development

What is Lean Product Development?

Lean is perhaps the most important concept that has been introduced to increase efficiency in manufacturing in modern times. In today’s fierce economic climate, many global firms have attempted to expand the lean concept from manufacturing to Product Development (PD) in order to sustain competitiveness. However, PD is very different from manufacturing, and there exist few documented examples of successful implementation of Lean in PD, other than inside Toyota where the term implementation may be somewhat misleading. The reason for this is the basic nature of PD—its purpose, tasks, process, people and perception of value—makes the understanding and application of Lean very different from its counterparts in manufacturing. This course gives the participant key insights into the fundamentals of Lean PD, its implementation, methods and practical tools, following an interactive and practical approach for learning. The overall objective is to define a common starting point for successful implementation and continuous improvement as the most essential part of any Lean strategy in PD.