Lean Product and Process Development

by Allen C. Ward

As understanding of lean and its application to the entire enterprise has deepened, organizations find that they need resources to help them perform core business tasks in new, more effective ways. One of the most critical of these tasks is new product development. The Lean Enterprise Institute is honored to publish Lean Product and Process Development, by Allen Ward, one of the pioneers in the study and practice of lean product development. In this breakthrough text, Ward asks basic questions that drive at the fundamentals of product development, and observes the sources (a.k.a. wastes) of the most common maladies that plague many product development organizations. He distills what might be termed cornerstones from the practices of lean product developers, which differ remarkably from conventional practice. Ward uniquely melds observations of effective teamwork from his military background, engineering fundamentals from his education and personal experience, design methodology from his research, and theories about management, cognition, and learning from his understanding of history and interactions with clients. With Lean Product and Process Development, Ward carries the implications of his theories into specific, practical recommendations, and employs systems thinking in all aspects of thought and investigation.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management, Self Help, Technology, Business Leadership

Paperback

First published December 31, 1899

Reviews

[Gerard Chiva]

Must read for any lean and agile practitioner.

[Grant]

This is a great and informative book explaining how to design new products and entire product-lines in an efficient and effective way, avoiding waste and minimising the duration of the process.

The author's notes and manuscript were completed in 2001, but sadly, Allen Ward died in a plane crash in 2004, before he had a chance to publish. John Shook and Durward Sobek, both master's of lean engineering in their own right, have done the world a service by arranging the publication of Allen Ward's ideas in this book form in January 2007.

Although Ward's experiences derive from manufacturing industry, the contents of this book surely apply to the research, design and development process of any product. Personally I have learnt a lot from the ideas and concepts explained so coherently herein… and I and my colleagues are busy mapping them to the whole-life cycle of software-intensive systems, a class of products that surely need the application of such ideas if ever anything did!

Highly recommended. Especially to anyone who wants to create new products and see them reach and sustain a profitable market.

P. Grant Rule,
St. Clare's, January 2008.

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[Robb]

This is a great book about HOW "lean" works in product development after studying Toyota's world-class processes.

This book was finished posthumously. Allen Ward passed away before finishing this.

[Patrick]

Classic on Lean Product Development