Lean Product Development—Faster, Better … Cleaner?

Abstract

To address this challenge, lean product development has emerged to become the leading improvement methodology for companies toward the creation of a competitive advantage on innovation and technology leadership. While lean product development has its origin in the best practice studies of Japanese car manufacturers such as Toyota, it has been further elaborated in defence and aerospace organizations over the last two decades, and recently empirical evidence has become available for successful introductions in sectors different from the traditionally-studied environments. The primary purpose of this work is to untangle the fuzziness that still surrounds lean product development and to ground the key aspects of lean product development based on insights from six studies published in a special issue of the Engineering Management Journal on this topic. This demonstrates how better and faster product development can be achieved through the integration of lean principles with the best of more traditional new product development (NPD) practices, into a holistic system that can be characterised by value-focused and risk-based decision making, the socio-technical integration of people and process, improved project, pipeline and portfolio management, optimized knowledge management, and the creation of a learning organization. Unfortunately, while the increasing global competition offers the potential to improve the quality of life for many, the spirit of faster, better, and cheaper also threatens to endanger the future of our planet as a whole. As the majority of a product’s social and ecological impacts are committed in the design phase, it, therefore, seems imperative to investigate the integration of lean product development and eco-design principles. As a result, this work also explores the symbiosis of both approaches through the identification of tools and methods that can support the triple bottom-line goals for a sustainable future of life and business.

Keywords

lean product development / sustainability engineering / responsible design

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