An Introduction to Second Generation Lean Product Development

Lero – The Irish Software Research Centre is delighted to welcome Don Reinertsen to NUI Galway. Don is facilitating a series of workshops with national and international companies that are participating in a Lero-led research initiative that focuses on the flow of value in software development practices.

This talk will introduce you to the science and some of the practical methods of Lean Product Development. It draws upon ideas from a variety of domains including: queueing theory, telecommunication network design, computer operating systems, and lean manufacturing. It will introduce you some key lean methods such as economic models, queue management, batch size reduction, WIP constraints, and cadence. It is intended to provide a quick exposure to some of the most important ideas of second generation lean product development.

Lean methods have been used for over 50 years in production processes, producing huge economic benefits. They are based on many principles that are transferable to product development. In fact, these methods are the only practical way to simultaneously achieve large improvements in the speed, quality, and cost of product development. However, using lean methods in product development requires some insight. Certain methods that work in Lean Manufacturing are toxic in a product development environment. For example, if we try to eliminate all variability we will, as an unfortunate side effect, eliminate all innovation.

Don Reinertsen

President of Reinertsen & Associates

Don is the President of Reinertsen & Associates; a consulting firm specialized in the management of product development. He has worked with leading product development organizations for over 30 years and has taught executive courses at Caltech for 14 years. He is the author/co-author of three best-selling books on product development, and is considered one of the leading thinkers in the emerging field of lean product development. His latest award winning book, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development, has been praised as, “… quite simply the most advanced product development book you can buy.”

This event is being funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and Lero – The Irish Software Research Centre as part the Agile and Lean Project Management and Scaling (ALPS) programme.