Page 96 - Design for Six Sigma a Roadmap for Product Development

Product Development Process and Design for Six Sigma 71

Stage 0: Impetus/ideation

Gate

Stage 1: Customer and business requirements study

Gate

Stage 2: Concept development

Gate

Stage 3: Product/service design/prototyping

Gate

Stage 4: Manufacturing process preparation/product
launch

Gate

Stage 5: Production

Figure 3.8 A typical stage gate process.

3.3 Lean Principles in
Product Development
Lean operation practices have achieved a great deal of success in both
manufacturing industry and many service industries, such as banking,
insurance, and health care. Can these lean operation principles
achieve the same drastic results in the product development process?
The answer to this question is yes. However, there are many distinct
differences between the product development process and the manu-
facturing process, so the lean principles have to be modified to work
well in the product development process.
The birthplace of lean manufacturing, Toyota, does have an edge in
the product development process compared with North American auto-
mobile companies. Table 3.1 summarizes the performance differences
between Toyota and North American automobile companies near 1990
(Womack et al 1990).