HOW TO AVOID EIGHT MAIN WASTE IN LEAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN AND PROJECT COMMISSIONING PROCESSES?
In the first part of our article, we explained what the eight main wastes are that you may experience in your product development and project commissioning processes.
In the second part, we provided detailed information about the methodology that can be applied to prevent the eight main wastes in your product development and project commissioning processes.
If you haven't read the first two parts, we recommend that you read them in order to better understand this section.
PART 3
In this section, we will complete our article by sharing the most common problems that businesses experience in Product Development and Project Commissioning Processes and the solutions proposed for these problems.
Problems and Solutions in Product Development and Project Commissioning Processes,
The number one problem in almost every business is usually the same. Disconnects and delays in "Information Flow" between departments and individuals create the biggest problem. Everyone complains about not being able to get the information they need, having to ask for it repeatedly. This is often true even for top management. Many businesses complain about numerous and unproductive meetings. Having so many meetings but not being able to provide accurate and timely information flow is a huge loss.
As it is known, one of the most important goals on the way to becoming a Lean Business is to ensure "Continuous Flow". The more we provide material flow, information flow, and document flow at the right time and with the right content, the more we progress towards the path of lean business. Therefore, the biggest problem revealed by the process mapping workshop is often the problems in information flow at many points. Let's not forget to mention that the upper managements are often the most surprised by this.
As a result, during the workshop, employees identify how to solve communication problems in the new process. It is determined and standardized who will provide which information to whom, how, and when in the new process. Everyone is obliged to comply with these standards.
Some of the most important problems that emerge in Process Mapping studies can be summarized as follows.
- The reasons that reduce the efficiency of designers may not be given much importance within the company or it may be unknown how to minimize them.
- New designers not having a proper education and development plan or support, thus taking a long time to reach the ability to design at sufficient speed and quality.
- The lack of a consistent methodology in calculating project deadlines when setting a project's deadline, leading to the ability to make promises that cannot be kept.
- Failure to accurately estimate the workload of project employees, leading to either excessive or imbalanced workloads.
- Not providing clear design inputs in contracts or at the beginning of the product development process
- Not holding a short and effective project kick-off meeting that involves all relevant departments.
- In procurement processes, there are various reasons for excessive time loss such as submitting almost every purchase for approval (even low-priced and insignificant items), delays in approval from upper management, and the lack of purchase limits for procurement employees.
- Inadequate input quality function
- Errors caused by urgent and incomplete/erroneous drawings provided to production
- Interdepartmental communication issues, utilizing technology to increase and expedite communication is crucial. There are many off-the-shelf software programs available for this purpose.
One of the most important steps in lean product development is to move towards "STANDARDIZATION". From the outside, the design process may not seem to be standardized, as it is a matter of skill, creativity, and imagination, and varies greatly from person to person. For these reasons, designers do not want or believe that standardization can be applied in their processes. Employers, too, may leave the job unfinished as they do not know how to achieve standardization.
However, reducing variability within the Product Development department, being able to make more accurate project plans, and minimizing the 8 wastes require standardization to be implemented.
Standardization contents can be categorized under 3 main headings:
- Standardization of product designs: Using common architecture in product families, using common parts as much as possible, and designing the product to provide ease of production and service for all departments of the business provides great convenience.
- Standardization of design process: In departments where there are different experiences among designers and there is no written design process, everyone can follow their own process. Often, upper management may even pressure to skip some time-consuming steps in the design process due to sales pressure. Therefore, products can be presented to the customer without enough prototyping, testing, or field testing. It is a well-known fact that quality problems can occur in products that go to the customer without being sure. To avoid problems in the field, the design process should be standardized in writing, and everyone should be required to follow it.
- Standardizing engineering skills: For the standardization activities in the first two items to achieve their goal, which is to be really applicable, the engineering competencies of the employees must be both sufficient and close to each other. To achieve this, a competency matrix should be created and development areas should be planned for all employees. Especially, experienced designers should allocate time for training new ones. In addition, the best training for the design programs used should be provided. However, education is not enough. The important thing is standardization in practice. For example, one of two designers who have received the same training, started working at the same time, and have the same experience may draw the two-dimensional image of the same part in 3 minutes while the other takes 7 minutes. It is useful to make measurements and applications so that many activities in the design process are carried out by employees within close time periods.
