Adopting Lean innovation thinking involves deliberately practicing Lean innovation routines. too often companies attempt to reduce innovation to a set of tools. Great companies make innovation a part of the fabric of the organization through continuous improvement. We provide thought starters here. Learn more about how organizations are doing this at the 2014 LPPDE Conference on September 23-24 in Raleigh/Durham, NC (www.lppde.org).

1. DELIBERATE INNOVATION: ITERATIVE
LEARNING TOWARD A CLEAR VISION
By Jim Morgan and Jeff Liker
August 2014
Revision 1

2. More and more companies are
engaged in creating new working
patterns in product creation that
engage people and functions across
the organization.
Every organization should have
strong routines for effective
innovation to keep moving forward!
It’s not so complex, but it is a
challenge to introduce new
behavior routines into a
team or organization.
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3. Notice... Your core product or service is the one
thing your entire organization has in common.
Delivering a new product or service and creating
a better value stream involves every function in
the organization.
Focusing on the value you add for your customer
is a way to align and engage any enterprise.
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A Unique Opportunity

4. Delivering the right Product
or Service = Growth
Plus 60 – 70% of operating costs
are determined in the design
phase of a product & process
Lean Product-Process Development is about
creating great products and reducing cost
4

5. VALUE ENGINEERING
VISUAL Management
Error
PROOFING
ASSEMBLY
DETAILS
Knowledge Database
So Many Tools???
Standard Architecture
Value Stream Mapping
Obeya (big room)
5

6. Specifications
Development
Concept
Development
Detailed
Design
Production
Preparation
Launch
Time
Value-Added
Flow
Rework
& Churn
Non-Leveled
Processing
Common Waterfall Process of Specialists Not
Working Together: Uneven Flow & a Lot of Rework

7. Procurem
ent
Finance
Finance
Finance
Manufacturing
Technology
Scheduling
Manufacturing
Technology
Scheduling
Scheduling
Procurem
ent
Manufacturing
Technology
Corrective
ActionBoard
Stress
Design
Tool
Engineering
Industrial
Engineering
SP
C
M&P
Production
Control
Scheduling
Manufacturing
Technology
Quality
Engineering
Finance
Receiving
Customer
Support
Functional Organization
Procurement
Much of Waste in Product Development comes from Functional
Bureaucracy: Making our own Numbers with No Overall Focus
Value Delivery Process
Manufacturing
Engineering

8. Time
One Result is
Reduced Lead
Time
Creating FLOW
in Product
Development
Leveled
Processing
Specifications
Development
Concept
Development
Detailed
Design
Production
Preparation
Launch
What we want is Coordinated Specialists
Working at a Leveled Pace to Get it Right the
First Time

9. 9
It Takes an Integrated System of People,
Processes and Tools to Achieve Leveled Flow
Focused on the Customer
PEOPLE
PROCESS TOOLS
A sustainable system
13 Lean Development Principles
all enable the continuous flow of value

10. “We could talk about Toyota’s engineering process and TPS
and all these different systems. But just talking about them is
not going to necessarily make another company better. It is
rooted much deeper in the culture in things like obeya, the Chief
Engineer system, kaizen, etc. It is the totality of it working
together in the culture established across many years that make
it all work.”
Uchiyamada,
First Chief Engineer, Toyota Prius
It’s People Working Together Toward a
Common Goal who Turn Lifeless Tools
into Innovation
10
PEOPLE
PROCESS TOOLS

11. What do you See?
Isolated Individuals or Collaboration?
(Software Design at Menlo Innovations)
• Introduction

12. Innovation Does Not Have to be Chaotic
Work Authorization Board:
The Daily Visual Work Schedule - Simplicity & Clarity!
The joy of getting things done!
• Time actual completion of each card vs. planned
• Red, green, yellowMenlo Innovations, LLC
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13. The Scientific Method of Plan-Do-Check-Act is
how we should Learn our Way toward Innovation
that Works
PLAN
DOCHECK
ACT
Grasp
the
Situation
• Understanding
• Agreement
• Buy-in
• Clear Action

14. Grasp
The
Situation
Target
Target
Target
Business &
People
Purpose
Current
State
Grasp
The
Situation
Grasp
The
Situation
Grasp
The
Situation
Target
CHALLENGE
& VISION
Results and
Condition
KEY ELEMENTS FOR DELIBERATE INNOVATION ARE
A CLEAR DIRECTION, UNDERSTANDING WHERE WE ARE NOW, AND
ITERATIVELY LEARNING STEP BY STEP TOWARD THE CHALLENGE

15. SOLUTION
Unfortunately We Often Jump to Quickly
to Solutions because we think we know
Jumping from “problem” to “solution” without clear understanding and analysis
PROBLEM

16. 16
It’s LearnedBorn
OK... HOW?
Design
Thinking

17. 17
VIDEO - A Way the Brain Learns
(2 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELpfYCZa87g

18. We’re striving for a
Learning Organization
HABITS
Knowledge
(What, Why)
Skills
(How)
Desire
(Want)
HABITS
18

19. The Lone Inventor with one Brilliant Idea
is a Myth
• Challenge: A working electric Light bulb
• Hypotheses: 3000 different filaments
• Tested every version
• 2 successes/3000
“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
19

20. It is Many Ideas that Through
Experimentation Turn into One Winner!
Experimenting our
way forward
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Increasing Knowledge

21. 21
Visible
Less
Visible
Lean tools and techniques
to improve quality, cost
and delivery
• A systematic, scientific
way of thinking and acting
• Managers as the teachers
of that way
WE SEE TOO MUCH FOCUS ON IMITATING THE TOOLS AND
PRACTICES OF GREAT COMPANIES LIKE TOYOTA AND NOT
ENOUGH SCIENTIFIC THINKING
This less visible part is a context
for making the Lean tools and practices work
SOURCE: Mike Rother

22. 22
We need a way for Team of People to Learn A Systematic Approach To
Achieving a Challenging Goal:
THE IMPROVEMENT KATA MODEL PROVIDES THIS
Understand
the Direction
or Challenge
Grasp the
Current
Condition
Establish the
Next Target
Condition
CC
TC
1 2 3 4
Iterate
Toward the
Target Condition
Planning
Executing
(PDCA)
This pattern is designed for learning a
systematic approach to innovation
SOURCE: Mike Rother

23. 23
WHAT ARE KATA?
Kata are structured routines you practice
deliberately, especially at the beginning, so their pattern
becomes a habit and leaves you with new abilities
KATA:
• Are typically for learning
fundamentals, to build on.
• Are a way of transferring skills and
developing shared abilities and
mindset in a team or organization.
“Let’s begin by
practicing it
this way for a
while.”
1
SOURCE: Mike Rother

24. 24
THE IMPROVEMENT KATA IS A WAY OF DELIBERATELY
PRACTICING THE SCIENTIFIC LEARNING CYCLE
This cycle gives you a practical way to reach a target
condition, by providing a systematic way of working
through the grey zone between here and there.
SOURCE: Mike Rother

25. Developing Exceptional Leaders and Engineers takes
On-the-Job development by teacher-coaches Who
Ideally are the Managers, not Outside Teachers
Master Chef & Students
Soccer Coach going over plays
Coaching Girl’s Basketball Team
Teaching Violin

26. Exceptional Teams need Exceptional People: Toyota Engineers go through an
inverted T career getting some breadth then going deep within a specialty
Breadth of Experience Across
the Organization (1-2 years)
Deep Knowledge within a Specialty
Domain (5-10 years)
A) T-Type Managers: Deep knowledge then go broad across jobs
B) Inverted T-Type Engineers: Broad exposure then go deep in technical specialty
Deep Knowledge within Technical
Specialty throughout Career (rest of
career)
Breadth of Experience Across the Organization (rest of career)

27. THE KEYS TO LEARNING DELIBERATE INNOVATION
• Common Vision for the Product and Process based on
Deep Understanding of the Customer
• Specialists are learning technical knowledge deeply
• Specialists are also learning through daily practice how to
improve (a kata)
• Managers are skilled at the scientific method for
improvement and how to coach and teach others
• Leverage abilities of all employees— Everyone is an
Innovator!