Innovative Design vs. Lean Product Development | Managing in the ...

Posted by Tim Rodgers in Management & leadership, Quality, Product design, Project management.
Tags: management, strategy, process, product development, six-sigma, innovation
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I?ve been very busy focusing on my job search and some self-improvement projects, and unfortunately it?s been harder to find some time to address my accumulated backlog of topics. I regularly follow several group discussions on LinkedIn related to product development and quality, and lately a popular discussion topic is how to inspire innovation in product design.

See for example Wayne Simmons and Keary Crawford ?Innovation versus Product Development? (http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2013/04/12/innovation-versus-product-development/), and?Rachel Corn?s blog ?Is Process Killing Your Innovation?? (http://blog.cmbinfo.com/bid/87795/South-Street-Strategy-Guest-Blog-Is-Process-Killing-Your-Innovation?goback=%2Egde_2098273_member_229196205). The latter post quotes a former 3M vice president who says that Six Sigma killed innovation at 3M, apparently because 3M?s implementation of Six Sigma required ?a full blown business case and even a 5-year business plan to get a new idea off the ground and into production.? The VP wonders: how do you institutionalize innovation without stifling it?

The conventional wisdom seems to be that product design is inherently a creative, right-brain activity that will fail or at least fall short if constrained by process. You can?t make art on a schedule.

I think this is a false conflict. I don?t see any reason why teams shouldn?t be able to conceive new designs within a structured and disciplined product development environment. Obviously the ultimate objective is to get a product to market, so at some point the experimentation must end, doesn?t it?

Six Sigma is about reducing variation. The lean movement is about eliminating waste. I understand that the early stages of product development may be wildly unpredictable and seemingly inefficient. Shouldn?t the latter stages focus on predictable outcomes, standardized processes, fast time-to-market, defect prevention, and efficient production?

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Source: http://timrodgers.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/innovative-design-vs-lean-product-development/

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