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Seminars 2008 |
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FLOW |
| Second generation
methods for Lean Product Development |
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Adelaide Technology Park Conference Centre, Mawson Lakes Boulevard, Mawson Lakes 15th August 2008 |
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Workshop Objectives |
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Through lecture inputs & facilitated Q&A, delegates will
learn how to:
- Identify & eliminate hidden waste in product
development
- Achieve flow & ensure that your own development
process does not undermine it
- Increase quality levels and contain costs
through the effective use of rapid feedback
- Remove unnecessary variability, discover
strategies that reduce its impact and manage risk
- Develop a step-by-step implementation plan to
incorporate Lean principles into your own
development process
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Workshop Content |
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Introduction |
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Most companies applying lean techniques to product
development fail to appreciate the critical differences
between repetitive manufacturing processes and
non-repetitive development processes. These differences
mean that waste is found in very different places. Until
this is recognised, companies will only attack easily
visible, but superficial forms of waste.
Key Learnings |
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- An overview of how lean techniques improve
product development speed, quality, and cost.
- An understanding of the critical differences
between product development and manufacturing.
- A clear framework for differentiating waste and
value-added in product development.
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The Economics of Waste |
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Product developers are counselled to eliminate
activities that add no value. Yet, the biggest
opportunity in product development lies in scrutinising
activities that add value. The only way to attack these
activities, which affect both cost and value, is using
the tool of quantification. We can do this with a sound
economic framework.
Key Learnings |
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- How to develop an economic framework to assess
waste
- The five forms of economic waste in product
development
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Understanding Variability |
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Variability is a greatly misunderstood concept in
product development. Paradoxically, you cannot add value
in product development without adding variability, but
you can add variability without adding value. A product
must be changed to add value, and this involves taking
rational risks.
Key Learnings |
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- How to distinguish between good and bad
variability
- What increases variability in product
development
- How to eliminate unnecessary variability
- How to reduce the impact of necessary
variability
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Managing Capacity |
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Many developers still view product development
deterministically, assuming that an excess capacity is
waste. In reality, development processes need excess
capacity to function optimally in the presence of
necessary variability. Using queuing theory we can get
strong insights on how to quantify the true cost of
process queues.
Key Learnings |
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- How to measure queues and quantify their
economic impact
- Tools for managing queues
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Using Batch Size |
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In manufacturing batch size reduction is the single most
important factor leading to order of magnitude
reductions in cycle time. In contrast, batch size
reduction is dramatically under-utilised in product
development.
Key Learnings |
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- The importance of small batch size and how to
achieve it
- The ten most common batch size problems in
product development
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Applying WIP Constraints |
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Most product development processes “push” work to
downstream processes. They try to schedule activities in
great detail, at long time horizons. This detail
inherently leads to much rescheduling and waste. In
contrast, WIP constraints smooth flow by locally
responding to variance.
Key Learnings |
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- How WIP constraints work in manufacturing
- Two practical ways to prevent WIP explosions in
product development.
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Achieving Cadence |
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“Pull”-based control systems can be used to make
real-time adjustments to compensate for a limited amount
of variance. However, they are most effective when
overall flows are smoothed and synchronised with a
regular process cadence. Product developers are just
beginning to use this technique in their processes.
Key Learnings |
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- How a regular cadence reduces variance
- Using cadence in product development processes
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Exploiting Feedback |
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Many product developers strive to create a development
process that does not require feedback. Yet,
well-structured feedback loops actually create
spectacular opportunities to smooth flow and attain
quality levels that far exceed those of processes that
try to “do it right the first time.”
Key Learnings |
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- Why fast feedback is critical
- How feedback permits development processes to
reduce variability
- How well-designed feedback loops can eliminate
waste
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Controlling Flow |
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Flow in product development processes differs from flow
in manufacturing because development projects have
different costs-of-delay. This creates an opportunity to
use well-designed priority systems to reduce the total
cost of queues.
Key Learnings |
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- How dynamic flow control differs from detailed
scheduling
- Using economically-grounded methods for setting
task and project priorities
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Finding Waste |
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Because product development processes add value in
different ways than manufacturing processes, waste is
found in different places. Typically, waste shows up in
predictable places in development processes.
Key Learnings |
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- Ten common areas of product development waste
- A general approach for eliminating waste
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Implementation |
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The final section will review factors that are likely to
lead to successful implementation. Course participants
will begin designing a plan for implementation.
Key Learnings |
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- How to initiate pilot programs and scale them up
- Strategies for developing a plan for immediate
next steps
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