Waste in Product Development
- Study of Industrial PD Projects Jin Kato, MIT
- be applied to various PD organizations
regardless of cultures and products.
Study of Industrial PD projects
• Visualizes Waste Drivers effectively.
626
Rework
13.3
36
Group
A
Defective
Information
5.5
Hand-offs
Task #1(5day) #1 Re (3day)
Rework
10
Motion
4
84.25
Inventory
(Information
in Buffer)
•  identify and measure the waste drivers in
their teams’ processes;
•  identify root-causes and measure their
impacts on PD Processes;
•  and finally, learn the best thing to pursue to
improve their PD processes.
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Tool 1: Swim-Lane VSM
• Helps Project Managers identify and measure
Waste Drivers.
Wasted Time [hour]
Over
Processing
Develop ideas and methodologies of Lean
PD into tools and processes that can:
- help PD project managers
Preliminary Result from One of
the Investigated Project:
Waiting
(People
Waiting)
Goal of This Study:
March 22, 11:25-11:40
Task #1 (5day)
Task #4
Task #4 (5day)
Task #6
Hand-off
Hand-off
Task #6 (5day)
Waste Driver
The analyzed period is the first two months out of
12-month PD project -- more waste is expected to
be detected in the later phases of the project.
Other analysis will include the following
graphs:
• Waste Driver – Wasted Cost
• Waste Driver – Root Cause
• Root Cause – Wasted Time
• Root Cause – Wasted Cost
Have been applying VSM, Waste Drivers and
Root-Cause Analysis Chart to three
complicated PD projects in two big
manufacturing companies.
• Company A: an American company developing test and Preliminary Conclusion:
Task #2
Group
B
Task #3
Task #2 (5day)
Task #5
Task #3 (5day)
Waiting
Task #5 (5day)
Tool 2: Root-Cause Analysis Chart
Helps Project Managers identify root causes of waste.
4. Over Processing (2/3)
Version 3.4as of 1/5
Waste (Low Performance) Driver
Causes
Poor Buffer Allocation
Continued from
previous page
Slack (or Buffer) Time
Becomes Self-Fulfilling
Prophesy
No Incentive
for Early Finish
Distribution of Buffers
To Every Task
Root Causes
Unclear/
Shifting Goal
4. Over
Processing
Existence of
Uncertainty
Exogenous
Factors
Highly Competitive Market
Instability of Market
Customer’s Poor
Understanding of The Market
Instability of Market
Highly Competitive Market
Inconsistency in
Customer’s Decision
Lack of Modularity
Nature of the Product
BtoB
Complexity
of the Product
Endogenous
Factors
Risk-Taking Strategy
Poor Understanding of
Current Technology
Inadequate (Too Long)
Development Time
Underbid
Low TRL
Tardy Decision
Process
Underestimation of
Development Cost
Poor Marketing
Insufficient
Time to Read/
Examine/
Release
Information
Designing Features
That is Not Specified
by Specification
(Different from Spec.)
Insufficient
Pervasion of
Goal Information
Lack of
Feedback Loop
Insufficient
Time
Local Over
Utilization
Now contains
about 300 patterns
of wasteful PD
processes
Inadequate Decision Process
Inadequate Scheduling Technique
Technological Uncertainty
Lack of Feedback Loop
Inadequate Marketing Method
Lack of DFM
Lack of Concurrent Engineering
Waterfall Process without
Proper Prototyping
Limited Resources (1)
System Over Utilization
No Level Scheduling
Limited Resources (2)
Limited Qualifications of Designers
Complex Organizational Structure
Spatial/ Structural
Barrier
Designer’s
Unconsciousness of Goal
Tardy
Information
Transfer
Poor Schedule/ Progress Control
Impractical Incentive /Measurement System
BtoC
measurement devices.
• Company B: a Japanese electric giant.
• VSM, Waste Drivers and RootCause Analysis Chart have made it
possible to identify both root causes
VSM and Root-Cause Analysis Chart have
been developed, tested, and improved through of low PD performances and their
quantitative impact on PD
intensive interviews with both project
performances.
managers and engineers.
Hand-off
Inventory (3day)
Spatial/ Structural
Barrier
Scattering Locations
Outsourcing
Complex Hierarchy
Structure of Organization
Functional Organization
Lack of Measurement of Designers’
Achievements In Terms of Goal
Perfectionist Engineer
Scattering Locations
Complex Organizational Structure
Outsourcing
Complex Hierarchy Structure of Organization
Functional Organization
Research by Jin Kato - Contact: Jin Kato (Graduate Student), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prof. Warren Seering
jkato@mit.edu, Phone: +1-(617)-304-6733, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Av., Room 3-441, Cambridge, MA 02139
7