Lean Enterprise Institute Logo
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter Signup
  • Cart (0)
  • Account
  • Search
Lean Enterprise Institute Logo
  • Explore Lean
        • What is Lean?
        • A Brief History of Lean
        • Lexicon Terms
        • Topics to explore
          • Operations
          • Lean Product & Process Development
          • Administration & Support
          • Problem-Solving
          • Coaching
          • Executive Leadership
          • Line Management
  • The Lean Post
        • Subscribe to see exclusive content
          • Subscribe
        • Featured posts
          Ukraine map

          Ukrainian Resilience: How Lean is Helping Companies...

          Handling the Heat of the Kitchen

          Handling the Heat of the Kitchen: A...

          • See all Posts
  • Events & Training
        • Custom Coaching and Learning Experiences
        • Co-Learning Partnerships
        • Forms and Templates
        • Featured learning
          • Improvement Kata/Coaching Kata Remotely

            June 06, 2022 | Online Live Course

          • Developing Structured Problem-Solving and Leadership Skills using A3 Thinking: Managing to Learn Remotely

            September 19, 2022 | Online Live Course

          • Hoshin Kanri Remotely: Aligning and Executing on Your Organizational Objectives

            September 23, 2022 | Online Live Course

          • Designing the Future Remotely: A Lean Product Development Immersive Learning Experience

            September 26, 2022 | Online Live Course

          • See all Events
  • Store
        • Shopping Cart
        • Featured books
          What’s a good “small step” to start off my LPPD transformation? A Q&A with Katrina Appell

          The Power of Process – A Story of Innovative Lean Process Development

          Toyota Way of Dantotsu Cover

          The Toyota Way of Dantotsu Radical Quality Improvement (Paperback)

          • See all Books
  • About Us
        • Our people
          • Senior Advisors and Staff
          • Faculty
          • Board of Directors
        • Contact Us
        • Lean Global Network
        • Press Releases
        • In the News
        • About us

The Lean Post / Articles / What’s a good “small step” to start off my LPPD transformation? A Q&A with Katrina Appell

What’s a good “small step” to start off my LPPD transformation? A Q&A with Katrina Appell

Product & Process Development

What’s a good “small step” to start off my LPPD transformation? A Q&A with Katrina Appell

January 17, 2017

A lean product and process development transformation may seem daunting, but all you really need to get started is a series of simple yet effective "small steps." Here's Katrina Appell on her favorite.

Facebook0Tweet0LinkedIn0Email0Print0Comment0

What’s a good “small step” to start off my LPPD transformation?

Visual management (VM) is a great place to start your lean product and process development (LPPD) transformation, especially if you have prior experience using VM. A VM system works the same in LPPD as it would in manufacturing or any other environment. And if you don’t have experience with VM it is a great place to start any lean transformation.

There is tremendous value in making things visual – a picture is worth a thousand words. When things are visual, everyone is able to see the same information, which helps to ensure that everyone really is on the same page. This is especially important in knowledge-work environments, such as LPPD, in which the work is hard to see. Visuals become even more valuable in a management system, as you can create one for anything that has a plan or standard – schedule, budget, resources, quality, knowledge gaps, etc.

Visual management is a great first experiment with lean as the benefits can be seen relatively quickly – good news for results-hungry management. You can create a daily or weekly cadence to identify and solve problems. A short cadence also enables more PDCA cycles in your LPPD transformation, which helps build momentum. As with any lean method, your experiment with VM should be connected to a problem. The type of problem(s) you need to solve should influence what comprises your first VM experiment(s). If you are working with a constrained resource, such as lab testing, that might be a good place for an experiment. Or if you need to manage a product development project, obeya could be a great experiment to start with.

When creating a VM system to address your problem(s) important components to include are:

  • Tracking actual versus plan
  • Identifying problems – when actual deviates from the plan
  • Effectively communicating problems
  • Effectively responding and solving problems
What’s a good “small step” to start off my LPPD transformation? A Q&A with Katrina Appell
Color key for the image above
Mint green: On schedule, no work in process
Dark green: In process
Dark green with check mark: Complete
Yellow: Risk identified, team working on a resolution
Red: Risk identified, resolution requires outside/managment support

This actually might not be easy, but it is easier to learn on a small scale with rapid PDCA cycles connected to real problems than to learn lean thinking through larger scale experiments. Lean is fractal and your visual management system should address the questions in the lean transformation framework:

  1. What is the purpose of the change–what true north and value are we providing, or simply: What problem are we trying to solve?
  2. How are we improving the actual work?
  3. How are we building capability?
  4. What leadership behaviors and management systems are required to support this new way of working?
  5. What basic thinking, mindset, or assumptions comprise the existing culture, and are we driving this transformation?

As you address these questions in your VM experiments you are building a foundation of lean thinking in product and process development, which can be expanded upon as you start experimenting with other LPPD methods.

Facebook0Tweet0LinkedIn0Email0Print0Comment0

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

Traditional product development vs LPPD

Product & Process Development

How to Launch Better Products Faster

Article by Lean Leaper

Dan Pink WLEI

Product & Process Development

Embracing Regret for Better Living: A WLEI Podcast with author Dan Pink

Podcast by Tom Ehrenfeld

wooden blocks with bulb on center one

Product & Process Development

Understanding Before Executing

Article by Lean Leaper

Related books

The Power of Process – A Story of Innovative Lean Process Development

The Power of Process – A Story of Innovative Lean Process Development

by Eric Ethington and Matt Zayko

Welcome Problems, Find Success – Creating Toyota Cultures Around the World

Welcome Problems, Find Success – Creating Toyota Cultures Around the World

by Nate Furuta

Related events

September 26, 2022 | Online Live Course

Designing the Future Remotely: A Lean Product Development Immersive Learning Experience

Learn more

On Demand Online Subscription Service

Virtual Lean Learning Experience (VLX)

Learn more

Explore topics

Product and Process Development graphic icon Product & Process Development
Problem Solving graphic icon Problem Solving

Be the first to learn of new learning opportunities and the latest practical, actionable information. Subscribe to an LEI newsletter.

Subscribe

Join our #LeanCommunity

A new online Slack workspace where lean practitioners gather to engage in collaborative problem-solving to help each other cope with today’s challenges.

Join us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

©Copyright 2000-2022 Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
Lean Enterprise Institute, the leaper image, and stick figure are registered trademarks of Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Learn More. ACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!