Abstract

OVERVIEW:Lean principles—a set of philosophies and approaches derived from Japanese management practices that focus on providing optimum value to the customer by eliminating waste and streamlining processes—have been applied to improve manufacturing efficiency for decades. But, in spite of clear indicators of less than efficient product development processes, those principles have not been widely applied to R&D. When The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company needed to improve its product development processes, it turned to Lean principles to provide a framework for a structured, efficient process. Unlike typical applications of Lean in manufacturing, which tend to focus on cost cutting, the decade-long Lean journey in Goodyear’s R&D has been focused on providing benefits for customers and companies. As a result, innovation has continued to grow in the company, as have R&D capabilities, even as R&D spending has remained flat.

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