For 25 years, the lean management movement focused mainly on how to continuously improve factory floor operations, not on the processes that created them in design, engineering, and product development functions. So I’d like to introduce you to two lean thinkers who can show you how to use lean principles to create a fundamentally different and dramatically better way to develop products and services.
At the recent Lean Transformation Summit, I got a chance to talk with Durward Sobek II, PhD, who has just revised and updated the first edition of Lean Product and Process Development. I also talked with Jim Morgan, PhD, who contributed two of the five new case studies in the book. One of them is about how Morgan used lean product and process development concepts while serving as a global engineering director at Ford Motor Company during its recent product-led revitalization.
Take a couple of minutes to check out the short video. They’ll give you an overview of a couple of the case studies, insights into what lean product development is, and why there’s a WWII fighter on the book’s cover.
