|
Despite attempts to interpret and apply lean product development techniques, companies still struggle with design quality problems, long lead times, unreliable launch schedules and high development costs.
To be successful, lean product development must go beyond techniques, conventional concurrent engineering methods, standardized engineering work, or heavyweight project managers.
This free webinar will give you a clear view of how to create and sustain a lean development system, based on the just-published book Lean Product and Process Development by the late Allen Ward, who pioneered research into lean product development and how Toyota practiced it. Using a very practical approach, the book describes the technical tools, the management system, the management behaviors and mental models needed to make Lean product and process development work.
Ward’s core thesis is that the very aim of the product development process is to create profitable operational value streams, and further, that creating usable knowledge is the key to doing so predictably, efficiently, and effectively. Therefore, Ward also created a basic learning model for development to leverage this usable knowledge.
In this webinar, Durward Sobek, Ph.D., an engineering professor at Montana State University who worked with Ward studying Toyota’s development practices, will explain the practical application of these core ideas. He will also detail the four cornerstones of lean product development that turn conventional product development thinking on its head:
Lean Product & Process Development Webinar May 1, 2007 |
|
2:00 PM EDT |
|
estimated duration one hour |
|
Durward Sobek II
Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator of
Industrial & Management Engineering
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT
Dr. Sobek is an Associate Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Montana State University. He holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an A.B. degree in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College.
Dr. Sobek’s research focuses on how organizations can increase their performance capacity through the application of lean principles. His current focus areas include new product development, engineering design education, and health care delivery systems.
Dr. Sobek has presented his research in numerous venues, and published numerous articles in publications such as Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.