This document summarizes a Product and Process Development Kaizen event held in Denver, Colorado in April 2008. It discusses three core principles of Kaizen: considering processes and products to surface actions for desired outcomes, systematically thinking about the whole process, and learning through a non-judgmental approach. Key aspects of conducting a Kaizen event are to flush out opportunities, visually identify waste in processes, determine business impact, and create buy-in. Tracking increasing maturity of products and services provides visibility to sponsors. The document also outlines the seven types of process waste and provides examples of how to reduce each type of waste.

1. PRODUCT & PROCESS
DEVELOPMENT KAIZEN
LPPDE, DENVER, COLORADO
APRIL 21-23, 2008
Improving the Probability of Success starts with
credible programmatic and technical processes
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2. 2
Product and Process Development Kaizen Is A Full Contact Team Sport

3. 3 Steps to Improvement Using Kaizen
Increasing
value to the
organization

4. Three Steps to Product and Process Improvement
4 Defining the Controls … That Assures Process Usage … Results in Reduced Waste
The existing process, development,
and operational controls assessed
for effectiveness, efficiency and
applicability.
These incremental improvements
are made using the principles of
Kaizen guided by eliminating the 7
Wastes.
Control applications applied to
standard work. Standard work
does not mean constrained, over
controlled, draconian.
It means “what we do for our
customers as a firm is known,
defined, and adds value in ways
acknowledged by all participants.
Using Kaizen as well as other
process and product improvement
process, search for, remove, and
replace Waste Reducing process,
products and service.

5. PDK does not require Japanese
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 改 (kai)
Change or the action to
correct
 善 (zen)
Good

6. Process Development Kaizen
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 Kaizen is a Japanese word
which roughly translates into
“continual improvement”.
 Kaizen is about fine–tuning
processes that already exist

7. Three Core Principles of Kaizen
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 Consider a process and the results, the
products (not just the results) so that actions
to achieve the desired outcomes are
surfaced.
 Systematically think of the whole process
and not just what is immediately in view.
 Learn through a non-judgmental, non-
blaming approach and intent allows for the
re-examination of the assumptions that
resulted in the current process.
 Blame, judgment, rehashing the past and all
that “we used to do it this way” are wastes (無
駄 Muda)

8. Making the outcome
clear and concise
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 Define the deliverables in visible
and measures terms – what does
“Done” look like for this round of
effort?
 Connect effort, duration, and risk
with these deliverables
 Arrange them in a sequence that
assures increasing maturity along
the way to completion
 But in fact we are never
complete in the conventional
sense – we are always
continually improving

9. Turning the
process from a
linear, waterfall;
To an iterative,
incremental,
continuously
improvement set
of activities;
That delivers
continuous value
to the
stakeholders.
This is the
theoretical basis
of all Agile
development
methods
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10. Conducting a PDK Event
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 Flush out opportunities at multiple levels
 Point out waste visually through process flow
diagrams
 Determine impact on overall business and / or
business units
 Create buy-in “on the spot”
 Incorporate change management as part of
overall improvement strategy

11. The Kaizen Event from the Program
Management Office Point of View
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Kaizen Activity Questions that need answers in order to improve
A structured product and
process maturity assessment
Where have we come from? What worked in the past?
What didn’t work? What can be improved? What can be
used from AS IS for the TO BE?
Evaluate risk and probability
for success
If we attempt to make improvements, what are the
inhibitors to success? What mitigations can be taken?
Visibly track the increasing
maturity of products and
services
How can we recognize we’re actually making
improvements? What are the units of measure?
Provide visibility to sponsors
and stakeholders
Can we have the sponsors concur we’re making
improvements?
Have the discipline to follow
through to rollout and
operations phase
What accountabilities need to be in place for us to be
successful? Can we make this accountabilities appear at
this time? If not now, when?

12. Conducting the PDK, means …
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…Turning on the light

13. Starting point for making improvements
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 Seek small opportunities for improvement in the
development process and the product definition
 Find and root out mistakes of the past in all
activities around product and service development
and deployment
 Improve the system not the people
 Devote time to measuring

14. Doing a PDK is an interactive process
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15. The raw materials of process modeling
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 Nouns
 Documents
 Data
 Information
 Evidentiary materials
 Verbs
 Transformation of nouns into new nouns
 «Noun»  «Verb»  «Noun»

16. Sample process flow
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17. The Seven Process Wastes (Remember TIM WOOD)
Use these as test questions for Process Improvement or Development
 Transportation
 Unnecessary Inventory
 Unnecessary or Excessive Motion
 Waiting
 Overproduction
 Over or Inappropriate Processing
 Defects
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18. Transportation
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Any movement
or motion from
one place to
another that
adds no value
 Make the
distance over
which
something is
moved as
short as
possible

19. 19
Reduce the
amount of work-in-
process within the
system
 Ensure that work
arrives at the
downstream
process when it is
required and does
not sit (no in basket
overflow)
Unnecessary
Inventory

20. 20
Unnecessary or Excessive Motion
Processing steps
that add no value
to the product or
service
 Avoid looking,
searching, or
wasting effort that
burdens the value of
the product or
service

21. 21
Waiting
Someone or
something waiting
with nothing to do …
 Keep people
productively
active
 Avoid paper or
decisions around
the paper from
sitting around
before being
processed
 Provide adequate
staffing at the
bottlenecked
operations

22. 22
OverproductionProduction of products,
services, documentation,
or facilities ahead of
demand
 Establish a flow
sequence to satisfy the
downstream customer
 Create workplace
guidelines and
standards for each
process and follow
them at all times

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Over or Inappropriate Processing
Activities still performed
but no longer needed or
poor planning and
organizational flow
 Remove unnecessary
steps
 Stop copying
everyone on emails
 Stop sending reports
and see who
complains
 Stop unnecessary
signoffs and reviews

24. Defects
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Activities that result
in error, rework, work
arounds, or quality
defects prevent the
customer from
accepting the
product or service
 Error proof the
process steps
 Use standardized
work instructions
 Continuous customer
feedback

25. Most failures to realize potential return on process and product
improvements start by committing one of these Seven Sins
The Seven
Sins of
Process
Improvement
Process not
traceable to
strategy
Improvements
don’t involve
the right
people
Teams not
given a clear
charter and
held
accountable
Top
management
focused on
change not
improvement
Change to the
people not
considered
Focused on
redesign
rather than
implementation
Failure to
leave
measurement
system in place
Improving Performance, How to
Manage the White Space on
the Organization Chart, 2nd
Edition, Geary A. Rummler and
Alan P. Brache, Jossey Bass,
1995

26. 26/5Glen B. Alleman, Copyright © 2012