Abstract
Keywords: lean development, waste, multi-project environment, development activities, value creation
In face of diversification and shorter product life-cycles, automotive companies need to enhance the efficiency of product development processes in order to confine development costs per sold vehicle. Lean Development offers principles, methods and tools for that aim. Most of the employed methods, of which value stream mapping is the most prominent, have a process-based approach: Analysis follows the path of one process. In following a timeline that might take 24 to 36 months, the analysis either takes that much time; or must refer to outdated or prospective information, both of which have their respective shortcomings. In addition, analyzing one process cannot account for the problems that stem from the interactions between different projects in multi-project environments.
In this paper, we thus introduce a complementary approach. Instead of a process-focused analysis, we analyzed product development activities across all currently active processes. The application of the method to a test setting is described in four main steps: Structuring, analysis, definition of countermeasures, and implementation. The method comprises quantitative as well as qualitative analysis, in order to evaluate effects as well as to understand causes. It was employed in a major automotive company's car body design department, which comprises about 600 employees.
The analysis' results show that 31% of activities (measured in man hours) within that particular department were non-value adding, complemented by 39% of required non-value adding activities. These figures are in line with conventional process-based types of analysis in similar environments. An eye-opener to management, designers only spent 5:30 hours per week designing CAD-models - in contrast to 15 hours per week spent in meetings and another 5:30 hours per week used up by email communication. Over 25 countermeasures were identified, which were estimated to entail a potential for 37% increase in capacity.
The presented snap-shot approach proved to complement process-based approaches in lean development. Within three months, it provided a detailed picture of activities in a multiproject environment and entailed numerous countermeasures.