Exploring Lean Product Development with Jim Morgan – Rivian’s Former COO #podcast #leanleadership
Mark Graban
18 Sept 2024
Video Lean Blog Interviews - Healthcare, Manufacturing, Business, and Leadership (Video) - Mark Graban
My guest for Episode #515 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Jim Morgan, senior advisor at Lean Enterprise Institute and a board member at Adrian Steel. Jim’s most recent industry experience was as Chief Operating Officer at Rivian, an electric vehicle manufacturer.
Episode page with transcript, links, and more: https://leanblog.org/515
He was previously a guest in Episode 109 back in 2011.
Before joining Rivian, Jim spent a little over ten years at Ford Motor Company. He began by leading the development of the Global Product Development System (GPDS).
He then served the last nine years as Director of Global Body and SBU Engineering and Tooling operations, where he and his team contributed to the company’s historic, product-led revitalization under then-CEO Alan Mulally.
Prior to Ford, Jim served as Vice President of Operations at Troy Design and Manufacturing (TDM), a tier-one global automotive supplier of engineering services, prototype tools, and low to medium-volume production parts and subassemblies.
Jim holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Michigan, where his original research into Product Development won two Shingo Prizes for Research Excellence. In addition, he co-authored (with Professor Jeffrey Liker) the award-winning books The Toyota Product Development System (2006) and Designing the Future (2018).
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We’ll dive into his incredible journey, from his time at Ford, where he led the development of their global product system, to his work at Rivian, helping to shape the future of electric vehicles. Jim shares valuable lessons learned along the way, especially around integrating lean principles into product and process development. We also talk about how embracing risk and learning from mistakes can fuel innovation.
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
Lean Origin Story: What’s your lean origin story, and how did you get introduced to lean thinking?
Product Development vs. Production: Can you explain the difference between product development and production systems?
Rivian Involvement: How and when did you get involved with Rivian, and what drew you to the company?
Challenges at Rivian: What were the major challenges and opportunities as Rivian evolved from concept to production?
Recruiting for Rivian: How did you recruit talent for Rivian, and what was the mix of automotive and non-automotive experience?
Rivian’s Product Strategy: How did Rivian’s product strategy differ from other electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla?
Culture Development: How did Rivian focus on building its own culture and operating system from the ground up?
Learning from Mistakes: How did Rivian’s culture embrace learning from mistakes, and how was that risk tolerance cultivated?
Ford and Alan Mulally’s Leadership: How did Alan Mulally’s leadership at Ford influence your thinking on surfacing and solving problems?
Board Involvement: What has your experience been like as a board member at Adrian Steel, and how does it differ from your previous roles?
LEI Learning Groups: Can you tell us about the LEI Product and Process Development Learning Group and how companies collaborate and learn together?
Designing the Future: What’s the central message of your book Designing the Future, and who is the target audience?
Agile and Lean Integration: How are you integrating agile and lean practices, especially in product and software development?
2019
After successfully implementing lean principles in manufacturing, Solar Turbines took them to product development processes, reducing firefighting and boosting development velocity. LEI’s Chet Marchwinski recently talked about the effort with Solar Products Manager Howard Kinkade.
https://www.lean.org/LeanPost/Posting.cfm?LeanPostId=1032
A Scalable Model For Lean Product Development
https://prgnpi.com/a-scalable-model-for-lean-product-development/
LEAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
https://planet-lean.com/focus/lean-product-development/
2015
Lean - Functional Product Development
Lean Thinking - Functional Management
Rapid Model Replacement - Slow model replacement
Frequent model-line expansion - Infrequent model line expansion
More incremental product improvements - More radical product improvements
Heavyweight project managers - Lightweight project coordinators
Overlapping compressed phases - Sequential long phases
High levels of supplier engineering - High levels of in-house engineering
Design team and project-manager continuity - Department member continuity
Good communication mechanisms - Walls between departments
Cross-functional teams - Narrow skills in specialized departments
Waste
The Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI) Product Development Team applied the seven wastes model to product development.
Source: Warmkessel, J. (1998). Introduction to the Product Value Stream. Cambridge, MA.
• Over Production
• Too Much Detail
• Unnecessary Information
• Redundant Development(Reuse
not practiced)
• Transportation
• Information/Software
Incompatibility
• Communications Failure
• Not Standards Based
• Multiple Sources
• Incompatible destinations requiring multiple transport
• Waiting
• Information Created Too Early
• Late Delivery of Information
• Unavailable Information
• Quality Suspect
• Processing
• Unnecessary Serial Processing
• Lack of Needed Information
• Poor/Bad decisions affecting
• Excess/Custom Processing
• Not processed per process
• Too Many Iterations/Cycles
• Unnecessary Data Conversions
• Excessive Verification
• No Transformation Instructions
• Decision Criteria Unclear
• Working WithWrong Level of Detail
• Propagation of Bad Decisions
• Processing of Defective Information
• Multiple Tasking When Not Required
• Inventory
• Too Much Information
• Incomplete Content
• Poor Configuration Management
• Unnecessary Movement
• Information User Not Connected
to Sources Requiring Manual
Intervention
• Information Pushed to Wrong
People
• Defective Product
• Quality Lacking or Suspect
• Conversion Error
• Wrong Level of Information
• Incomplete Information
• Ambiguous Information
• Inaccurate Information
• Tolerance Exceeded
• Poor Configuration Management
http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/7519/Strategies+for+Lean+Product+Development.pdf?sequence=1
Updated on 24 July 2019, 11 March 2015
After successfully implementing lean principles in manufacturing, Solar Turbines took them to product development processes, reducing firefighting and boosting development velocity. LEI’s Chet Marchwinski recently talked about the effort with Solar Products Manager Howard Kinkade.
https://www.lean.org/LeanPost/Posting.cfm?LeanPostId=1032
A Scalable Model For Lean Product Development
https://prgnpi.com/a-scalable-model-for-lean-product-development/
LEAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
https://planet-lean.com/focus/lean-product-development/
2015
Some Differences between Lean Product Development and Functional Product Development
Lean - Functional Product Development
Lean Thinking - Functional Management
Rapid Model Replacement - Slow model replacement
Frequent model-line expansion - Infrequent model line expansion
More incremental product improvements - More radical product improvements
Heavyweight project managers - Lightweight project coordinators
Overlapping compressed phases - Sequential long phases
High levels of supplier engineering - High levels of in-house engineering
Design team and project-manager continuity - Department member continuity
Good communication mechanisms - Walls between departments
Cross-functional teams - Narrow skills in specialized departments
Seven Waste Model Application to Product Development
Waste
The Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI) Product Development Team applied the seven wastes model to product development.
Source: Warmkessel, J. (1998). Introduction to the Product Value Stream. Cambridge, MA.
• Over Production
• Too Much Detail
• Unnecessary Information
• Redundant Development(Reuse
not practiced)
• Transportation
• Information/Software
Incompatibility
• Communications Failure
• Not Standards Based
• Multiple Sources
• Incompatible destinations requiring multiple transport
• Waiting
• Information Created Too Early
• Late Delivery of Information
• Unavailable Information
• Quality Suspect
• Processing
• Unnecessary Serial Processing
• Lack of Needed Information
• Poor/Bad decisions affecting
• Excess/Custom Processing
• Not processed per process
• Too Many Iterations/Cycles
• Unnecessary Data Conversions
• Excessive Verification
• No Transformation Instructions
• Decision Criteria Unclear
• Working WithWrong Level of Detail
• Propagation of Bad Decisions
• Processing of Defective Information
• Multiple Tasking When Not Required
• Inventory
• Too Much Information
• Incomplete Content
• Poor Configuration Management
• Unnecessary Movement
• Information User Not Connected
to Sources Requiring Manual
Intervention
• Information Pushed to Wrong
People
• Defective Product
• Quality Lacking or Suspect
• Conversion Error
• Wrong Level of Information
• Incomplete Information
• Ambiguous Information
• Inaccurate Information
• Tolerance Exceeded
• Poor Configuration Management
http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/7519/Strategies+for+Lean+Product+Development.pdf?sequence=1
Updated on 24 July 2019, 11 March 2015
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