This document provides an overview of a Product and Process Development Kaizen event held from April 21-23, 2008 in Denver, Colorado. It discusses improving processes using three steps of kaizen: defining existing controls, assessing them for effectiveness and efficiency, and making incremental improvements by eliminating waste. Seven types of waste are identified: transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing, and defects. The document also outlines conducting a kaizen event, modeling processes, and common sins of process improvement like failing to involve the right people or establish clear accountability.

1. PRODUCT & PROCESS
DEVELOPMENT KAIZEN
LPPDE, DENVER,
COLORADO
APRIL 21-23, 2008
Improving the Probability of Success starts with
credible programmatic and technical processes
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2. 2
Product and Process Development Kaizen Is A Full Contact Team Sport

3. 3 Steps to Improvement Using Kaizen
Increasing
value to the
organization

4. Three Steps to Product and Process
Improvement
4Defining the Controls … That Assures Process
Usage …
Results in Reduced Waste
The existing process,
development, and operational
controls assessed for
effectiveness, efficiency and
applicability.
These incremental
improvements are made using
the principles of Kaizen guided
by eliminating the 7 Wastes.
Control applications applied to
standard work. Standard work
does not mean constrained,
over controlled, draconian.
It means “what we do for our
customers as a firm is known,
defined, and adds value in
ways acknowledged by all
participants.
Using Kaizen as well as other
process and product
improvement process, search
for, remove, and replace Waste
Reducing process, products
and service.

5. PDK does not require Japanese
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 改 (kai)
Change or the action
to correct
 善 (zen)
Good

6. Process Development Kaizen
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 Kaizen is a Japanese word
which roughly translates into
“continual improvement”.
 Kaizen is about fine–tuning
processes that already exist

7. Three Core Principles of
Kaizen7
 Consider a process and the results, the
products (not just the results) so that
actions to achieve the desired
outcomes are surfaced.
 Systematically think of the whole
process and not just what is
immediately in view.
 Learn through a non-judgmental, non-
blaming approach and intent allows for
the re-examination of the assumptions
that resulted in the current process.
 Blame, judgment, rehashing the past and
all that “we used to do it this way” are

8. Making the outcome
clear and concise8
 Define the deliverables in
visible and measures terms –
what does “Done” look like
for this round of effort?
 Connect effort, duration, and
risk with these deliverables
 Arrange them in a sequence
that assures increasing
maturity along the way to
completion
 But in fact we are never
complete in the conventional
sense – we are always
continually improving

9. Turning the
process from a
linear, waterfall;
To an iterative,
incremental,
continuously
improvement set
of activities;
That delivers
continuous value
to the
stakeholders.
This is the
theoretical basis
of all Agile
development
methods
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10. Conducting a PDK Event
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 Flush out opportunities at multiple levels
 Point out waste visually through process
flow diagrams
 Determine impact on overall business and /
or business units
 Create buy-in “on the spot”
 Incorporate change management as part of
overall improvement strategy

11. The Kaizen Event from the
Program Management Office Point
of View11
Kaizen Activity Questions that need answers in order to improve
A structured product and
process maturity
assessment
Where have we come from? What worked in the
past? What didn’t work? What can be improved?
What can be used from AS IS for the TO BE?
Evaluate risk and probability
for success
If we attempt to make improvements, what are the
inhibitors to success? What mitigations can be
taken?
Visibly track the increasing
maturity of products and
services
How can we recognize we’re actually making
improvements? What are the units of measure?
Provide visibility to sponsors
and stakeholders
Can we have the sponsors concur we’re making
improvements?
Have the discipline to follow
through to rollout and
operations phase
What accountabilities need to be in place for us to be
successful? Can we make this accountabilities
appear at this time? If not now, when?

12. Conducting the PDK, means …
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…Turning on the light

13. Starting point for making
improvements13
 Seek small opportunities for improvement in
the development process and the product
definition
 Find and root out mistakes of the past in all
activities around product and service
development and deployment
 Improve the system not the people
 Devote time to measuring

14. Doing a PDK is an interactive
process
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15. The raw materials of process
modeling15
 Nouns
 Documents
 Data
 Information
 Evidentiary materials
 Verbs
 Transformation of nouns into new nouns
 «Noun»  «Verb»  «Noun»

16. Sample Process Plow
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17. The Seven Process Wastes (Remember TIM WOOD)
Use these as test questions for Process Improvement or Development
 Transportation
 Unnecessary Inventory
 Unnecessary or Excessive Motion
 Waiting
 Overproduction
 Over or Inappropriate Processing
 Defects
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18. Transportation
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Any movement
or motion from
one place to
another that
adds no value
 Make the
distance over
which
something is
moved as
short as
possible

19. 19
Reduce the
amount of work-in-
process within the
system
 Ensure that work
arrives at the
downstream
process when it is
required and does
not sit (no in basket
overflow)
Unnecessary
Inventory

20. 20
Unnecessary or Excessive Motion
Processing steps
that add no value
to the product or
service
 Avoid looking,
searching, or
wasting effort that
burdens the value of
the product or
service

21. 21
Waiting
Someone or
something waiting
with nothing to do …
 Keep people
productively
active
 Avoid paper or
decisions around
the paper from
sitting around
before being
processed
 Provide adequate
staffing at the
bottlenecked
operations

22. 22
OverproductionProduction of products,
services, documentation,
or facilities ahead of
demand
 Establish a flow
sequence to satisfy the
downstream customer
 Create workplace
guidelines and
standards for each
process and follow
them at all times

23. 23
Over or Inappropriate Processing
Activities still performed
but no longer needed or
poor planning and
organizational flow
 Remove unnecessary
steps
 Stop copying
everyone on emails
 Stop sending reports
and see who
complains
 Stop unnecessary
signoffs and reviews

24. Defects
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Activities that result
in error, rework, work
arounds, or quality
defects prevent the
customer from
accepting the
product or service
 Error proof the
process steps
 Use standardized
work instructions
 Continuous customer
feedback

25. Most failures to realize potential return on process and
product improvements start by committing one of these
Seven Sins
The Seven
Sins of
Process
Improvemen
t
Process not
traceable to
strategy
Improvements
don’t involve
the right people
Teams not
given a clear
charter and
held
accountable
Top
management
focused on
change not
improvement
Change to the
people not
considered
Focused on
redesign rather
than
implementation
Failure to leave
measurement
system in place
Improving Performance, How to
Manage the White Space on
the Organization Chart, 2nd
Edition, Geary A. Rummler and
Alan P. Brache, Jossey Bass,
1995

26. 26/5Glen B. Alleman, Copyright © 2012