Lean Development – Getting new Developmets to market… faster

Some companies are especially dependant on short time-to-market cycles, such as in the fields of aerospace, engineering, build-to-order, IT, and service-providers. Most have already fine-tuned one aspect of their operation lean production methods. That’s because optimized production processes give them the flexibility they need most, in terms of time and money. However, by changing the product development processes, flexibility can be even further enhanced. And although Design-to-Cost approaches in the development phase are already being used to improve production and product costs — Ingenics’ “Lean Development” principles take the whole process — one decisive step further.

Whoever favors lean management principles, will naturally also focus on faster, leaner development phases. This can occur primarily by reducing waste and saving resources at an early stage, as well as by changing employee working schedules. A typical example is with highly trained engineers, who are often overburdened with too many different tasks (multi-tasking). But with lean principles such as improved processes and value flow enhancements — a greater development capacity can be achieved with the same number of employees. In addition to reducing waste with improved work schedules, additional enhancements in the product development are also possible (e. g. with Critical Chain Project Management, CCPM or by using Scrum principles). In this way, lean development practices can raise a company’s flexibility to better deal with customer demands or product changes even in the latter stages of the development cycle.

Also, using lean approaches, development times for simpler projects can be cut – while for more complex projects final deadlines can be fulfilled far more easily, as Ingenics has repeatedly demonstrated.

In addition, other Ingenics product or project modules have also had a positive effect on product development, such as Competitive engineering, Design-to-Cost and intelligent facility planning.

“Lean Development” is part of our modern corporate culture. And it also helps product development processes to minimize waste, improve work schedules and improve a company’s flexibility. 

The goals of “Lean Development” are similar: significantly shorter development times, increased development capacities, and the stabilization or even reduction of development cost and investment budgets. Here, Ingenics’ Lean Development principles are based on modules such as: lean office, invest-to-cost, NRC and investment management, as well as the Lean Learning Academy.