Specific strategies for successful lean product development implementation

Abstract

The competitive advantages of an enterprise are linked to decisions made in product development. One promising approach is to apply the principles of lean to product development. A multitude of different lean product development (LPD) concepts and implementation strategies have been published so far. The enterprises face the challenge to choose the most promising implementation strategy. In order to give guidance for the enterprises, this article defines universal criteria for the LPD implementation process. Based on these criteria, the most common LPD concepts are evaluated. Thereby, enterprises can develop their own strategy for LPD implementation. To verify the recommendations of the LPD concepts, a study was carried out. The study identified which specific strategies for implementation were preferred by enterprises. In this way, the paper discusses on the one hand the state of the art in LPD implementation, and on the other hand the preferred implementation strategy of enterprises.