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The Lean Development Process |
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Womack, Jones and Roos describe the lean product development process, which begins with a very large team consisting of representatives from every functional area in the company, as well as key suppliers. In the beginning, the work of the team progresses very slowly, toward a genuine consensus. Along the way, functional specialists are dropped-off, as their input is completed. When the final consensus has been reached, team members sign their names to formal pledges, committing to do exactly what they agreed to do. At this point, the team can move quickly and seamlessly toward excellence.
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This is contrasted with the typical Western product development process, which starts out with only a few team members. Over time it swells to include a wide variety of specialists whose job it is to rectify the inconsistencies in the design that arose out of a failure to reach a genuine consensus early on. The lean process, though slow in the beginning, eventually produces better results in less time, with much less backward movement along the way.
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Womack, James P., Jones, Daniel T., Roos, Daniel. The Machine that Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production. Harper Perennial. New York. 1990.
This book is the result of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's International Motor Vehicle Program -- the most comprehensive examination of the global auto industry ever undertaken. The authors use hard data and intimately informed insight to cut through the myths and misinformation which cloud the common understanding of good manufacturing practice.
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Even though this book focuses on the automobile industry, the model of Lean Production -- which is called "Japan's secret weapon" -- can be applied to any enterprise in any industry. Womack, Jones and Roos bring western readers up to speed with the Japanese concepts of Kaizen (continuous, incremental improvement) and Kanban (just-in-time production), claiming and proving that Lean Production is a superior method for manufacturing excellence.
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