Lean Product and Process Development (EN)

"The real difference between Toyota and other automakers isn't the Toyota Production System. It's the Toyota Product Development System." — Kosaku Yamada, chief engineer of the Lexus ES 300

Anyone familiar with Lean is familiar with the Toyota Production System. Far fewer people realize that, when it comes to product development, Toyota is just as astonishingly far ahead of the competition—and that the principles behind this lead are fundamentally different from anything Lean practitioners are used to.

Lean Product and Process Development reveals those principles, and does so with a depth rarely found in Lean literature.

What do you learn in the Lean Product and Process Development course?

Allen Ward studied Toyota’s product development approach for many years and, based on those observations, developed a coherent theory about how learning and development can be fundamentally more effective. His conclusions are surprising and sometimes downright counterintuitive to those familiar only with Lean manufacturing.

The book explores what customer value means in the context of product development and which forms of waste—known as " knowledge wastes"—are specific to development processes. You will learn about the crucial role of the chief engineer as an integrating force in the development process and how cadence, flow, and pull are applied in a development context.

The most distinctive concept is set-based concurrent engineering: an approach in which multiple design options are developed in parallel and only combined into a single solution late in the process. This stands in stark contrast to the usual practice of converging on a single concept as early as possible, but structurally reduces the likelihood of failure. Ward demonstrates howtrade-off sheets serve as a practical tool in this context.

In addition, the book explores how teamwork and knowledge development are integrated into Lean product development, and how organizations can begin applying these principles in their own practices, step by step.

This is the second, revised edition, edited and reorganized by Durward Sobek to make the content more accessible and practical.

Why should I read *Lean Product and Process Development*?

Anyone experienced in Lean manufacturing actually knows very little about Lean product development. That is one of the central arguments of this book—and it is an uncomfortable truth. The intuitions you have developed about flow, standardization, and waste apply only partially in a development context. Product development revolves around dealing with uncertainty and building knowledge, and that requires a fundamentally different approach.

Ward was one of the first and most thorough researchers to study Toyota’s product development approach. His findings have been confirmed and expanded upon by others in the decades since, but his original thinking remains the most in-depth and coherent work in this field. The editors at Sobek have made the second edition more accessible without compromising its depth of content.

For anyone serious about Lean product development, this book is indispensable and inevitably challenging.

Who is *Lean Product and Process Development* intended for?

• Product developers, engineers, and R&D managers who want to apply Lean principles to their own field
• Lean Master Black Belts and senior practitioners who want to expand their knowledge beyond manufacturing
• Organizations that aim to excel in both production and product development
• Anyone who is curious about what truly sets Toyota apart from the competition in the long run

What do fellow writers think of this book?

"Allen Ward understood something that most Lean experts still underestimate: that product development has its own logic, and that Toyota masters that logic better than anyone else. This book is the best proof of that." — Jim Womack, founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute

"This is the most challenging—and at the same time, the most valuable—book in the Lean canon. Anyone who has read it will see innovation and Toyota in a different light." — Jeffrey K. Liker, author of The Toyota Way

Additional Information

About the authors

Allen C. Ward (1956–2004) was a researcher in the fields of artificial intelligence and product development at the University of Michigan. At the suggestion of colleagues, he began studying Toyota and was astounded by what he saw: a product development system that already fully put his own theories on effective learning into practice—and far surpassed them. Ward became one of the most insightful and original researchers of the Toyota Product Development System, and his thinking on set-based concurrent engineering has permanently changed the field. He passed away in 2004, too soon to fully complete his work.

Durward K. Sobek II is a professor of mechanical engineering at Montana State University and one of the first doctoral students Ward supervised. Following Ward’s death, he took on the responsibility of revising and reorganizing the original manuscript for the second edition. Sobek has since continued his own research on Lean product development and is considered one of the leading experts in this field.