Marcus Vinicius Pereira Pessôa

Study Phase—Value Proposition Activities

While the value identification activities were concerned about understanding and structuring all the value pulled by the stakeholders, the next step in the PDP aims to develop a possible functional architecture that can deliver this value, which is the chief engineer’s vision of the upcoming product/service. The value proposition documents in this vision differ from the initial pulled (product) vision. This value proposition is deeply rooted in the identified value set, and defines which product/service functional architecture is the preferable choice to deliver this set and yet mitigate its related risks, therefore guaranteeing the PDP uninterrupted flow. This chapter uses the stall recovery system project example to present a stepwise execution of this phase’s activities, where special emphasis is given to defining the best candidate product’s functions to SBCE.

The Product Development System

This chapter shows the particularities of the Product Development System, with special emphasis to the Product Development Process (PDP). PDP itself is people-based, complex, and non-linear, with high ambiguity and uncertainty. Consequently, a wide spectrum of variables can affect its success, and, not surprisingly, over time, over budget and low quality are commonplaces on PD projects. By discussing the PDP characteristics and its consequences, we aim to show that having a high performance PDP is not an easy task to any company; therefore competitive advantage comes from accepting these particularities and understanding how they affect your particular PDP. Far from neglecting these particularities, the lean company deeply understands them, how they affect its particular reality, and shape its PDP to exploit its strengths and avoid its weaknesses.

The Lean Product Development Organizational Culture

This chapter presents the main aspects related to organizational cultures which support the lean philosophy. Organizational culture is unique for every organization; it is not easily defined and even harder to change. It is essentially the cause and effect of the sum of all the written and unwritten rules, attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, and traditions which contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization. All lean processes, tools and techniques are effective if supported by a lean enabling organizational culture. This culture allows the integration and alignment from all performed processes, regardless of whether they are being supported by lean labeled or non-labeled tools and techniques. Do not forget that are not the tools used by an organization that makes it a Lean Organization, but how it uses these very tools.

Robot Based Flight Simulator Development Project

This chapter presents the application of the lean product design and development method to the SIVOR (Simulador de Voo com Plataforma Robotica de Movimento—Robot Based Flight Simulator) project, which is a 3-year research project aiming to develop a flight simulator that combines the capabilities of a Full Flight Simulator (FFS) and of an Engineering Development System (EDS).

Thermo Baby Development Project

This chapter presents a piratical application of the book’s method during the Thermo Baby development project, which was prepared as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the 2016 Lean Product Development Course we offered in the Mechanic Engineering Graduate Program at the Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica (ITA).

Integrated Product Design and Development

This chapter discusses the evolution of product development approaches through time. It reviews the serial or sequential approach that was adopted by the companies under the influence of Industrial Revolution and Fordism. Then the Integrated Product Development (IPD) approach is presented and discussed. It’s worth mentioning that IPD was influenced by the Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) proposal that emerged in the 80s as an evolution of the Ford manufacturing system. IPD keeps the benefits from the former approach (shorten price, shorten timeto- market, augmented quality) while fixes its shortcoming such as reworks, lack of communication amongst technical areas etc. IPD prescribes the structuring of two main pillars, namely, multifunctional or IPD teams and DFX (Design for eXcellence) design tools. After presenting some practical examples of the usage of DFX design tools, this chapter introduces the novel concept of integrative design variables (IDV): there is a target value associate to them; they are affected and affect most of the design decisions and their meaning is easy to grasp. Cost, weight, center of gravity are IDV examples. The IPD concept goes far beyond standard products such as cars, aircrafts and washing machines. At the end of the chapter you’ll find the IPD applied to academic or technical assessment.

The Lean Product Development Process

This chapter describes the product development phases and activities, which are detailed in Chapters 10 to 13. We consider four phases in the PDP: (1) the portfolio phase, which produces a general vision of the product, both aligned to the value pulled by the market/customers and consistent with the company’s strategy and capacity; (2) the study phase, which includes the identification of the value pulled by both by external and internal stakeholders, the value proposition activities that outline the chief engineer’s vision of the new product, and the value delivery planning for the next phases; (3) the execution phase, including the design, development, production/ramp up of the products and/or services that deliver the pulled value; and (4) the use phase when the resulting product/process is followedup until its discontinuation. The Value Function Deployment (VFD) technique and the Product Development Visual Management Boards (PDVMB), which are also presented in this chapter, support the Lean Product Development Process execution.

Value on Product Development

The term value is rather ambiguous, even in the product development field. This chapter presents how project management, value engineering and lean product development define value and highlights the consequences of these different understandings. We stress that, in lean product design and development, the goal is to understand the value pulled by all stakeholders in the value chain. Although fulfilling the needs from the external stakeholders (user, customer, shareholder/sponsor, etc.) have more impact in product success (do the right product), fulfilling the internal stakeholders’ needs (suppliers, design and development team, production, development partners etc.) guarantee a smoother PDP execution (do the product right). Considering the lean two pillars, we address the jidoka by understanding the value pulled by the external stakeholders, while the just-in-time refers to the internal stakeholders’ needs.

Waste in Product Development

The opposite from value is waste. Waste absorbs resources, increase cost and create no value. Therefore the result from a wasteful activity is something that no one wants to pay for. Even though there is no Toyota definition of waste outside of the production process, the notion of waste helps to understand their development system. In fact, there are several adaptations from the original seven wastes, most of them varying on the descriptions and including additional wastes to the set. This chapter compares some of these proposed sets and presents the 10-waste set used in this book. We also discuss how each of these 10 wastes relate to the Product Development System elements and why we consider creating a waste-free and “waste proof” process an unfeasible task. Even though it is unlikely that the wastes will be completely eliminated, they can be considerably reduced.

Study Phase—Planning Activities

Planning (also called forethought) is the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve a desired goal. The planning activities define the value proposition delivery strategy, which aims to develop the scoped product in the most efficient way, with no/minimum waste, unevenness, or over burden. This chapter uses the stall recovery system project example to present a stepwise execution of this phase’s activities, where special emphasis is given to defining the pull events that shape the future development execution.