This document discusses applying lean principles to design work. It argues that focusing on eliminating waste and engaging employees can increase sales, profits and sustainability. Lean is built on mutual trust between customers, employees and management. The key aspects of lean design are continuous improvement (kaizen) and respect for people. Kaizen involves analyzing work in detail to understand and eliminate waste. The document outlines a lean design process involving understanding customer needs, set-based concurrent engineering to avoid rework, using standards, and preparing for production. It emphasizes that people, not systems, enable great design, and managers should act as teachers to develop employee skills and expertise.

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Kaizen spirit in design work
Dr Michael Ballé

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Kaizen spirit in design work
Dr. Michael Ballé

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The lean perspective
• If you focus on producing value for your
customers and engaging your people in
eliminating waste
• Sales will go up
• Profit and cash will increase sustainably

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Lean is built on mutual trust
• Trust from customers that your products will give
them complete satisfaction, reliably at a good
price
• Trust from employees that they will work in a
safe and stable environment, where they have an
input on running and designing the workplace

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LEAN = KAIZEN + RESPECT

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KAIZEN = Improving our own
work step-by-step to
better understand
technical processes
and make smarter
decisions

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RESPECT = Taking into account
people’s opinions and
supporting them to
succeed in their own
work and in working
with others in the
value chain

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Kaizen is eliminating waste
Waste is all the unnecessary cost created
by our wrong ideas and wrong decisions

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Design work generates waste
CUSTOMERS: Added cost for customers when the
product doesn’t solve their problem
completely or when they have to
compensate, fix and maintain it
MANUFACTURING: Added cost to the manufacturing process
in terms of Bought Out Parts (weight and
supply chain), oversized investment to
realize the product and unnecessary labor
because too difficult to assemble
ENGINEERING: Misunderstandings that generate conflict,
long feed-back loops and reworks,
unsolved problems that pop up right at
start of production and, in the end,
technical solutions that don’t satisfy
customers or manufacturing

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CUSTOMERS
Ahh!

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CUSTOMERS
GRR!

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MANUFACTURING
• Too many expensive
parts
• Too many difficult
operations
• Over-complex, over-
sensitive technical
processes
• Over-complex flow
• Over-complex supply
chain

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13
ENGINEERING
Poorly
understood
customer usage
Technical solutions not
taking account other
aspects of the
product/process
Tools and
protoypes ignore
full speed
production
constraints
Detailed solutions
reinventing the
wheel and
untested

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Lean design strategy
From:
Concept Design Rework
To:
Concept Design Rework

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15
SOP

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Sure, but HOW?

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JOB = WORK + KAIZEN

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Kaizen gets people thinking
About the waste THEY create
because of their technical
choices
About what to challenge and
what NOT (standards)

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Looking for waste
I learn to analyze
my own work in
detail
To better
understand the
waste I generate
for others
Root cause
about my work
Root cause
problem solving
teaches me to
think deeply
about my work
And to better
work with others
to solve design
problems

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Kaizen tools
• Kaizen tools are
analytical tools to help
recognize waste
• Summarize problems
as gaps to standards
• Investigate the root
cause
• And study our
countermeasures

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Four phases
CUSTOMER
CONCEPT
SET-BASED
CONCURRENT
ENGINEERING
DETAILED
DESIGN
WITH
STANDARDS
LEAN
PROTOTYPING
AND
TOOLING

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Takt time
What is the product
takt time? The
innovation takt time?
Where do we want to
take the product?

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Concept paper
How well do we
understand our
customers?
They want YET:
Light Strong
Fast Quiet
Many features Handy
Our target customers want
to solve their -----
problems:
What will be our key
technical and
organizational challenges?

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Tear down
How well do we
understand our
competitors?

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Target cost
Can we sell at market
cost and make a
profit?

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Set based concurrent engineering
Exploring the design
space on critical
issues to avoid
endless feed-back
loops

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Design standards
Standards are what
we KNOW about:
• Architecture
• Interfaces
• Parts
• Technical processes
• Design
28

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Slow build
Assembling the
product part by part
to look for kaizen
opportunities

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Production preparation
How will the cell
work for operators
and flow of
components?

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A3 problem solving
Have we thought this
through?

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Kaizen always produces greater insight
KAIZEN:
Visualizing problems
Formulating the problem
Seeking root cause
Studying
countermeasures
ORGANIZATIONAL
CAPABILITY:
Chief engineer
Autonomous design teams
Design standards
Managers are teachers

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A leadership paradigm shift
People make great designs, not systems

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A managerial revolution
MANAGERS = TEACHERS

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Challenge, open mind, teamwork
Page : 35
Broadening leadership skills
Deep rooted expertise

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