Gemba Success Story

Rapid Product Development Case Study: Overhauling the Design Process

This case study shows how a successful Rapid Product Development Program can reduce time to market significantly and be an important element in increasing market share.

Background
The existing product portfolio was losing its competitive edge; competitors were making substantial product improvements and in many instances, key parameter performance had been overtaken. Although a program was in place to develop new products, significant delays and quality issues were being experienced and customers were losing faith in the ability to deliver compliant products on time.

Solution
The team designed and implemented a Rapid Product Development process. They then identified the following key elements as their primary target outcomes: performing sequential tasks faster, better prototyping and integration of parallel activities. The team reached this goal through:

· Creating a shared view of the project and clarification of stakeholder expectations

· Making cross-team integration occur at the detailed level

· Providing teams the control over project commitments and deadlines

· Ensuring the early involvement of key suppliers

· Using prototyping as a management tool rather than a technical tool with a focus throughout the design process

· Establishing a concurrent engineering environment

A pilot project with the right attributes was carefully selected:

· Short to moderate duration

· Take less than the average time to complete

· Large enough to be meaningful, but not a “bet the company” project

· Product specification not completely defined

Results
By maximizing resource availability to support prototyping and concurrent activity and facilitating rather than managing team progress, the product qualification was completed in under five months compared with the normal expectation of seven months.

By institutionalizing the Rapid Product Development process, the team achieved the key outcome of a 25-50% reduction in development cycle time.

This cycle time reduction, along with a manufacturing capacity expansion, allowed for a significant increase in market share over a three year period.