Product Development and Process Improvement

A sometimes overlooked function of production planning, is materials management for new product introduction (NPI).

In our previous article, we covered fundamentals of managing contract manufacturers (CM) value streams.  The goal for NPI is similar: we want NPI prototypes available per a prototype plan and (eventually) a production plan.

Below is a simplified value stream map for a managing a contract manufacturer using “plan, source, order, make, deliver” as major subprocesses.  The planning function “NPI Materials Manager” is shown with corresponding interfaces and is the focus of this article.

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In this final article of the series, we will cover the right leg of the “V” diagram which illustrates the process of verifying and integrating hardware into the system. 

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In Part 1 of this article series, we described validation engineering as the process of validating, monitoring and execution of product requirements to ensure customer needs are met.  The validation engineer is the validation process owner and works with subject matter experts to develop complete, accurate and testable requirements.

In this article we’ll look at the technical leg of project management that enables the development of a hardware product. 

Let’s start with a simplified definition of project management:

The planning, monitoring and execution of the project within scope, schedule and resource constraints.  The project manager works with subject matter experts to establish a work breakdown structure and facilitates the execution of WBS activities and deliverables.  Ultimately, the goal is good project quality within the scope, schedule and resource constraints. However, good product quality and reliability depends on systems/validation engineering.

In reviewing several previous articles in this article series, it’s apparent there is much in common with product development, project management and process improvement.

Let’s look at a brief list that considers a structured approach vs. unstructured

While this list is pretty “high-level” it reveals the importance of project leadership, governance and management.  A structured approach (for example a phase-gate structure, DMAIC or agile/scrum) enables management and planning, which enables governance and governance enables leadership.

Some structured approaches may be more suitable than others depending on the type of project.  However, any structure (with leadership, governance and management in mind) is probably better than none.

Our previous article identified several forms of waste, specific to completing tasks, as detailed by the following table:

Keep in mind, by focusing on tasks, this table assumes several things:

• a project selection process that ensures the project is valuable
• robust project requirements & planning
• project sponsorship and resources (team members) are made available

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Our previous article compared agile/scrum with lean/kaizen and revealed several similar fundamentals that helped make each methodology easier to understand.

Since the objective of lean and agile is waste reduction, we also want to identify and eliminate various forms of waste.

In order to do this, first let’s consider our objective to manufacture hardware product, develop a hardware or digital product and/or execute a project:

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