Lean product development can be overwhelming. There are many moving parts, many of which are unfamiliar to typical engineers and designers; aspects of the methods are counterintuitive from a conventional development point of view. Lean product development is further complicated by its synergistic nature; intertwined aspects feed off each other to create a system more effective than the sum of the parts. As such, pursuit of lean product development can be challenging, even for those organizations that undertake it with a good understanding of what is required.
In order to simplify the concepts and break the system into manageable parts, we have defined seven key elements/principles to lean product development. The seven elements are by no means all-encompassing, but we have found that organizations that focus on getting good at these go a long way in improvement and create a solid foundation for other aspects, like supplier involvement. See the 7 key elements here.
