Why Learning Is Central to Sustained Innovation

The term lean product development is relatively new, but the underlying concepts have been around for more than three decades. Operational excellence is not achieved by just applying so-called lean practices to every process. More than anything, it requires cultivating an aptitude and an expectation for continuous improvement within every employee. People, not processes, make great products. Rather than being a state, lean is really a process by which companies can simultaneously improve product design, manufacturing capability, and supply chain efficiency. In new product development, lean is about advancing developer skills through technical training and methods of collaboration so that each developer is able to design, develop, and deliver better products and services. What lean does try to specify are the things that should be fixed and the things that should be flexible. By making these determinations early, engineers know where they have flexibility and where they must operate within fixed constraints.