By now, the terms "lean manufacturing" and "lean enterprise" are quite popular and well accepted. The "lean" approach is acknowledged as a way of doing business in the present challenging environment. The "lean" principles are easy to understand and accept. The challenge is in implementing them.

Such an approach revolves around concepts, which have been talked about for time immemorial. However, it is only recently that the Lean manufacturing and enterprise concepts have been given a serious look as businesses combat the pressures of customer satisfaction, cost reduction, globalization, compliance, time to market, growth, profitability etc.

Lean manufacturing aims to "do it right the first time" while minimizing waste (this refers to not just physical waste but importantly to non-value add processes as well) and being open to change. Toyota led this effort by what is now the well-known Toyota Production System (TPS). The global manufacturing industry went about researching, learning or adopting similar practices only to find out that they did not achieve significant business success, such as gaining competitive advantage.

The reason most probably lies in the fact that emulating only manufacturing practices is not enough. This can put a company's manufacturing practices at par with other leaders. But what about the products themselves? If quantum improvements are needed in areas such as competitive advantage, market share, which can lead to higher revenue growth and profitability- companies need to build winning products! Thus Toyota's leadership today is not only because of TPS.

Leading companies around the world recognize this fact and are applying the "Lean" principles to other activities of the value chain. Examples of activities even before a product is manufactured are product development, planning, parts sourcing, purchasing and so on. It is in this context, most companies are realizing that Lean Product Development is the next frontier, since it provides a greater level of opportunity for improvement. Lean manufacturing still delivers significant value but is no longer a competitive differentiator.

In Focus - Product Development
As enterprises become more customers driven, the focus has shifted to product development. They are now beginning to realize that an even greater level of opportunity for improvement is available by better managing the digital product definition at every stage in a product's life. There are ever increasing demands to improve innovation, quality and time to market while reducing costs. These circumstances have forced businesses to re-engineer their product development processes. Global Product Development (GPD) has become a reality through off shoring and outsourcing, to leverage the benefits of costs and talent availability around the world. However, newer challenges have emerged. There is a need to collaborate effectively across geographies, various participants including customers and suppliers, time zones, cultures and languages.