The team at Wellspect is in the process of implementing Lean Product Development (LPD) methods across the organization. This article explains the principles of Lean, its history, and how employees are working with it.
Lean methods have been used at Wellspect in production for years and more recently in R&D. In 2018, a decision was made to train employees across all functions on a Lean approach to product development in order to strengthen the ability to launch new products more quickly and ultimately reach an average of 1.5 new products per year.
Lean is a philosophy that aims to maximize customer value – develop the right products that make a genuine difference – while at the same time minimizing the waste of resources used through continuous improvements. Lean has its origins in manufacturing. The Toyota Motor Corporation adapted concepts from Ford’s production line into their own Toyota Production System, which shifted the focus from utilizing individual machines to the flow of the product throughout the complete process.
Anna-Siri Andersson, first winner of the iLean Award.
Christian Grönlund, Associate Brand Manager, explaining the digital marketing process at the A3-vernissage.
Ulrika Siösteen, Senior Project Manager reading out the Multi Project SCRUM Board at a project meeting.
Dentsply Sirona’s focus on optimizing workflows for customers is rooted in the same philosophy as Lean. The term itself was first coined by a research team at MIT‘s International Motor Vehicle Program in the late 1980s. Lean tools and principles are applicable well beyond manufacturing and have been applied to areas of business in many industries.
Lean Product Development philosophy includes three components: mindset, structure, and tools. The mindset is about customer focus, sharing knowledge, thinking about ways to reduce waste, and continually re-thinking processes in order to improve. The structure, which breaks projects down into work packages, aims to create workflows that support this mindset. Wellspect uses tools such as a knowledge gap analysis and visual planning on boards as well as the so-called Scrum framework that helps teams work together.
Working with Lean methods has helped us to identify knowledge gaps at an earlier stage of product development. We are able to therefore plan further ahead, fill any gaps, and make more progress more quickly. One of our recent successes utilizing Lean was to more frequently involve users at an early stage in developing packaging for the recently launched LoFric Elle, the world’s first catheter with a handle, designed for women. The result was more user-friendly packaging.
There is also a focus on training teams to use the A3 process, named for the A3-sized sheets of paper on which critical knowledge gets communicated. They’ve even held several “A3-vernissages” to help share knowledge and are publishing an iLean Newsletter summarizing recent progress, highlighting successful implementations of Lean along with explanations and interviews about the underlying reasoning for the change in work processes.
Wellspect also introduced the iLean Award, which aims to encourage Lean’s core principles of knowledge sharing, collaboration and dynamic planning by recognizing employees who challenge themselves to explore and use new ways of working, take a proactive approach to problems, are team players, or have positive results using Lean tools. The iLean Award winners will be announced each quarter until the end of 2020. Any employee within Wellspect may be nominated. The first award went to Anna-Siri Andersson for her ability to complete tasks in a manner that minimizes the risk of last minute issues by embracing Lean methods.
Find out more about the winners of the iLean Award.