From SCDigest’s On-Target E-Magazine From Victim to Partner: The Evolution of a Manufacturing Development System SCDigest Editorial Staff The following column comes through special arrangement with the Lean Enterprise Institute . It was authored Jim Morgan, senior advisor to the organization. SCDigest Says: Excellence in product development is not "an engineering thing" – it is an enterprise thing, and manufacturing’s role in product and process development is crucial. "Why do you want to go there? Why waste time going to the plant floor when we are supposed to be assessing product development capability?" my host asked me, for the umpteenth time. This wasn’t the first time a senior product development leader could not make the connection, and while it wasn’t exactly surprising, it definitely was not a good sign. In fact, one of the best ways to learn about a company’s product development capability is simply to walk through their manufacturing operations. Take a walk, what do you see? Large re-work areas, lots of quality containment, workers who must be contortionists, trapped labor, poor fit and finish, and lots and lots of variability? Chances are pretty good that there are opportunities in product and process development. Excellence in product development is not "an engineering thing" – it is an enterprise thing, and manufacturing’s role in product and process development is crucial. This should not be new news. Yet it is still rare to find a company that truly excels at this. Why? For one thing, it’s really hard work, but more often companies struggle to create the balance required to produce both great products and lean value streams. Many companies even struggle to visualize what this would look like. This in fact is one of the fundamental differences between traditional product development and lean product and process development. One […]