Lean R&D
What is it?

What does Lean R&D mean exactly?

Well, "R&D" are the prior upstream stages to production.
Research activities handle ideas, concepts. Research is also liked to experiments and tests. Development is the next step, when the concept is brought to life, turned into a sellable good.

Now the industry well known best practices, like Lean and six sigma, apply as well on shop floor operations as in administrative tasks or in R&D activities. Furthermore, Research and Development escaped so far the thorough search for productivity. They are now the new frontier, the area where hidden gains of productivity remain.

The two main targets of a "Lean R&D" are short time-to-market and the control of global costs.
(see article Lean R&D; seeking Low Cost Car)

Anticipation of future logistics flows is one of the often disregarded constraint in engineering phase, while having a significant impact on the performance in later mass production.

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