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A Lean Product Development Process comprises 3 basic elements: (1) driving waste out of the product development process, (2) improving the way projects are executed with stage-gate A3 management process, and (3) visualizing the product development process.

Getting Things Done (GTD) is actually two things: A productivity method, and a best-selling book by author and productivity consultant David Allen. It's been around for a long time, and it's a staple of productivity enthusiasts everywhere-including here at Lifehacker. Still, we've never done a deep dive on what it is and how you can make it work for you. And, since we've recently been diving into some of the life hacking basics for new readers in our 101 series, we thought it was worth revisiting.

When you are at the gemba, you are watching the work. We like to say you are "looking for waste" and list seven, or eight, or ten different categories of waste that you are supposed to look for. I think it is simpler than that. An ideal workflow is smooth. The product moves smoothly, without starts and stops, without sudden changes in momentum. The people move smoothly. Each of their motions engages the product and advances the work in some way. Machines do not interfere with the smooth movement of product or people. Information flows the same way. There is nothing in how it is stored, retrieved, or presented that causes people to break their smooth rhythm. When you watch the work, try to visualize what smooth would look like. Smooth has no wasted motions, no excessive activities. Anything that doesn't look smooth is likely the result of an accommodation, an awkward operation, poor information presentation, poor computer screen layout and workflow. Just another way of looking at it.

But what is best quality for products and services involving multiple people in a more complex supply chain? What is quality at the source, why does it matter? Quality must be defined by whoever the end customer is, so there is not one definition. However, when a company commits to producing according to the quality characteristics desired by its end-consumer, doing the right thing the first time will help deliver a product of the desired quality and at a predictable cost. When quality is not built into every step of the way, defects get passed on and produce unnecessary waste, potentially compromising the end result and making for a more expensive overall operation. Our customers (and our associates) "taste" the quality of our products and services every single day. Let us create a flavor that has them coming back for more.

In an interview with CBS News, Musk seems to be having a change of heart and perspective. He referred to the environment as "production hell," as frustration has risen over the Model 3. Musk now feels that the robotics in the Tesla plant have actually complicated things and has caused the delays in production. During the interview, he states that he will be scaling back on automation and depending more on the "human" touch and feel for auto production. For some, this has not been shocking news or an over-statement of the issues. 

"The best time to train workers is when an error is first detected. It also is the best time to solve a problem." - Dr. Ryuji Fukuda, VP of Production at Sumitomo Electric When do you train your personnel in problem solving? How do you train them in problem solving? Dr. Ryuji Fukuda, VP of Production at Sumitomo Electrics says "The best time to train workers is when an error is first detected. It also is the best time to solve a problem." He refers to this activity as On-Error-Training (OET). The following five rules are necessary to make OET work successfully in your shop.

It turns out that a common method line managers and team leaders often did was to help on the production line, making the production numbers look better than they really are. The role of team leaders and line managers are not to be on the line, but instead to observe and generate continuous improvement ideas. Since their role is not in production, their time doesn't count and makes the production numbers look better than they really are.

Couldn't resist posting an article that links Bruce Lee with productivity!

I'm a rabid believer that lean concepts and tools can improve personal productivity enormously - hell, I (literally) wrote the book on that. But it's nice to see validation from the go-go world of internet startups.

Good read for all of us involved in new product development.

Perhaps a little hard to tell, but there's an identical air conditioning unit in every single little office. Hundreds of them (it's a large building). I saw similar examples with large apartment buildings. Is central air a waste? Sure there's some production efficiency in large-scale utilities - wait did I just say that? But how much of that efficiency is wasted when it is delivered to areas that don't necessarily need it. Would smaller units that can be easily turned off create greater aggregate system efficiency? Aggregate "actual in use" efficiency vs. the "large scale production efficiency"? It's the same issue that electric cars and makers of single-home power plants (solar, geo, etc) are wrestling with.

I don't know about this one.

Unclutterer.com is a fascinating, intensive site dedicated to improving personal productivity and quality of life by the elimination of unnecessary stuff.  The site's dozens of topics range from bedroom and kitchen, to college dorm, office, and general productivity and time management.

"Inspection does not improve the quality, nor guarantee quality. Inspection is too late. The quality, good or bad, is already in the product. As Harold F. Dodge said, "You can not inspect quality into a product." - W. Edwards Deming, Out of Crisis, Page 29

5S is a process and method for creating and maintaining an organized, clean, and high performance workplace.  It enables anyone to distinguish between normal and abnormal conditions at a glance.  5S can be the foundation for continuous improvement, zero defects, cost reductions and a more productive work space.  The 5S methodology is a systematic way to improve the workplace, processes and products through employee involvement.

A push system, where work is foisted upon a department from the outside, by its very nature will lead to overloading a system and exploding lead times. A pull system, where work is taken from a pile of projects by the people doing the work when they're ready for it, ensures that the department matches inputs and outputs for maximum efficiency. Interestingly, this approach is rare. There's a tendency in the office environment to treat "production" capacity as infinite. Partly this tendency is due to people's willingness to work late into the night or on weekends. Partly this tendency is due to the difficulty of calculating how much time a particular project will take. Inherent in knowledge work is the inability to take a project to completion in a smooth, uninterrupted flow.

Pick a process to start and "pull"

How about JT production. JTs are currently pushed into the Planning Dept from Program Mgt. Let's see how we would install a pull system.

Do one task, to completion, before moving on to the next.

A simple white board that follows the tried and true principle of Standard Work help me a lot. Let me share with you the white board I use at work that helps me remain productive and keeps me focused on the right things.

Real Kaizen thinking is based on making these little changes on a regular basis: always improving productivity, safety and effectiveness while reducing waste.  The western philosophy is often summarized as, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." However, the Kaizen philosophy is to "do it better, make it better, improve it even if it isn't broken, because if we don't, we can't compete with those who do."

Pay attention to the critical benefit here: everyone has agreed that email is NOT to be used for urgent or complex issues. This agreement really is significant, because it unshackles people from their BlackBerries during meetings, or product development work, or strategic planning. Or their kids' soccer games. Or dinner. Or sex. Which means that there's now a fighting chance to have some uninterrupted time to, you know, think.

Creating a positive workplace is critical to a company's success. Most people who have experience working in an office have seen firsthand the difference between one that has a positive environment and one that doesn't. A positive work environment has a better productivity rate, happier workers overall, better morale, and a lower turnover rate.