Development of a Process for Continuous Creation of Lean Value in Product Development Organizations

The concept of “lean” was first applied to product development by introducing ideas and tools of lean manufacturing. Wor mack and Jones (1996) defined five lean principles, “specifying value,” “identify the value stream,” “flow,” “pull,” and “striving for perfection.” Two research topics, definition of waste and practical way of value stream mapping have been focused on by many scholars and product development practitioners, based on the idea that addressing these topics lead to realization of the five lean principles. From the perspective of waste, Wor mack and Jones introduced nine categories of waste by adding two new categories to Toyota’s seven categories of waste in manufacturing. Slack
(1999) tried to prioritize the nine types of waste by conducting surveys of product development organizations, questioning each category’s frequencies. He also analyzed each category’s effect on value.