Applying lean thinking to new product introduction

Abstract

Lean Thinking and its principles as prescribed by Womack and Jones have been successfully applied to manufacturing and operations environments, and associated case studies and research literature have been published extensively. The same cannot be said for Lean application to the new product introduction (NPI) or development processes. The aim of this paper is to describe the application of the Womack and Jones principles of Lean Thinking to the NPI process (from concept development to detailed design through to customer delivery). While techniques such as concurrent engineering (or concurrent product development) have been implemented and have been quite successful in improving NPI, there is still a shortfall in the expected or desired improvements to NPI. This shortfall we believe can be bridged through the application of Lean Thinking to NPI; in particular, the five lean principles proposed by Womack and Jones. The five Lean principles are briefly ‘specify value’, ‘identify the value stream and eliminate waste’, ‘make the value flow’, ‘let the customer pull the process’, and ‘pursue perfection’. In this paper each principle is defined and characterized within the context of NPI. The work presented was developed on the Society of British Aerospace Companies' UK Lean Aerospace Initiative involving 40 aerospace companies of all sizes from across the UK. Two case studies from the industry are also presented to demonstrate aspects of Lean application in NPI (in particular, in product design and development). The paper concludes by summarizing the key methods and tools that enable Lean in NPI, and by discussing the key adjustments required to the manufacturing/operations definitions of waste and value to accommodate the demands of effective and efficient NPI.