Thinking beyond lean
Subtitle: how multi-project management is transforming product development at Toyota and other companies
By: Michael A. Cusumano, Kentaro Nobeoka.
Contributors: Nobeoka, Kentarō.
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 248
Subjects: Automobiles -- Design and construction.; Project management.; Concurrent engineering.
Description: ""Lean Thinking" has dominated product development and project management for over a decade. Now, however, a six-year study by MIT's International Motor Vehicle Program led by Michael Cusumano and Kentaro Nobeoka finds that, in order to dramatically improve product portfolios, Toyota and other leading companies are moving beyond single-project management on which lean thinking is based. Drawing on a data base of 210 automobile products and detailed case studies from Toyota, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Nissan, Honda, Mazda, Renault, and Fiat, the authors demonstrate how product development teams can share engineers and key common components but retain separate designers to maintain distinctive product features. The result: multi-project management has brought these companies huge savings in development and production costs." "Cusumano and Nobeoka's findings will be required reading for every company that makes more than one product."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-237) and index.