Approaches towards lean products

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Approaches towards lean products

Stetter, Ralf / Niedermeier, Michael

If analysing the history of products in different domains one will recognize that at some point in time products were appearing which were considerably lighter, better, and cheaper than earlier products. This paper aims at identifying the distinctive qualities or at least differences that made these products 'leaner' than their predecessors. The underlying hypothesis of this work is that these distinctive qualities or differences can be abstracted and can be used to formulate guidelines for the future development of lean products. Designers who know why breakthrough products were breakthrough products are more likely to produce new breakthrough products. The identification of distinctive qualities and differences presented in this paper are supported by a taxonomy that is based on the results of leading design methodologies. By means of using this taxonomy a systematic analysis of breakthrough products and their predecessors was fostered. This analysis is focused on exemplary families of products which exhibit innovations that allow a distinction between conventional and leaner products. These product families are audio players (recorders), telephones, cameras, train bodies and car bodies. Especially a comparison over a longer time span allowed an identification of distinctive qualities. The preliminary results of this research work which are presented in this paper are first guidelines for the design and product development of lean products.