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C O N F E R E N C E
Lean By Design:
Front End Techniques for Better, Faster, Cheaper Products
May 17-20, 2004 / Chicago, IL

Pre-Conference Workshops: Monday, May 17
Post-Conference Workshop: Thursday, May 20
Pre-Conference Workshops:
Monday, May 17
Workshop A
QFD: A Practical, Hands-On Course for Product Developers Who Live in the Real World

gerry50.gif (4295 bytes)INSTRUCTOR
Gerald M. Katz
Executive Vice President
Applied Marketing Science, Inc.

Product developers continually face the challenge of accurately translating customer needs (often expressed in soft consumer terms) into explicit product and process design specifications. In addition, further complications arise when many of the technical solutions conflict with one another. So just how can product developers deal with this level of complexity and prioritize all of the potential trade-offs properly?

Though always a little controversial, QFD remains the best, most rigorous way to accomplish this. A thorough QFD exercise, executed by a well-constructed cross-functional team, forces product developers to consider each customer need explicitly, generate new metrics and new design specifications that, in turn, can result in more creative technical solutions. QFD also provides a rational approach to manage trade-offs and prioritize the features most deserving of an organization's effort and budget.

Since its inception in Japan in the early 1970's, QFD has been both praised for its detailed analysis and reviled for its tedium. This course will teach participants how to conduct a real world QFD exercise without suffering "a nose bleed"! With just enough theory to get started, and an emphasis on the practical issues, this course will fully prepare participants to facilitate their own teams through a real QFD exercise.

Gerry Katz is a recognized authority in the areas of new product development, design of new services, and market research, with more than 30 years of consulting experience. At Applied Marketing Science, Inc., he has led more than 100 major client engagements employing The Voice of the Customer, QFD, and a large number of other marketing science applications. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Product Development & Management Association (PDMA), is a certified New Product Development Professional and is a contributing editor to Visions magazine.


Workshop B
Leveraging the Power of Lean Design to Cut Costs, Increase Quality and Inspire Innovative New Products

Bill SpragueINSTRUCTOR
Bill Sprague
Design Prophet
Munro & Associates

Since a product’s design ultimately dictates 70 percent of a product’s downstream costs, a company only implementing lean principles in manufacturing is essentially losing the greatest opportunity for significant savings. Lean design is an approach that enables a company to design out waste from the process rather than simply tweaking the process; it also leverages traditional DFA/DFM with a more visual, team-based analysis that focuses on reducing the non-valued added elements of designs. The improvement in quality results, enterprise & overhead activities, and assembly & manufacturing processes is profound.

This workshop will examine the fundamental concepts behind Lean Design and put an end to fixing problems on the manufacturing floor by examining new processing techniques and /materials at the early design stage. You’ll be introduced to the critical ingredients for successfully implementing Lean Design: the importance of the multifunctional team, how to anticipate all downstream activities (from manufacturing to service to recycling) during the design phase and how to have an open mind to view materials and technological processes from different perspectives.

By participating in this hands-on, exercise oriented workshop, you will learn:

  • Lean Design concepts and case study documented benefits
  • About profit boosting technologies – how to identify new or cross-industry technologies and innovations that your company could benefit from
  • The rules and processes for performing a Lean Design DFA/DFM analysis
  • How to use analysis findings to generate multiple improvement ideas for a typical design assembly
  • How to generate more design profit through prioritized redesign concepts and innovations
  • How to expand Lean Design impact including quality, manufacturing processes, ergonomics and service in your redesigns
  • How to build a business case or team presentation n support of your redesign by developing concept sketches, potential cost and quality savings and implementation plans

Bill Sprague, Design Prophet, Munro & Associates, is recognized as a global expert in the implementation of Product Development improvements. He has published eight papers on lean design, DFA/Concurrent Engineering Case Studies, Concurrent Engineering and DFA Implementation, Design for Environment and Culture Change aspects for DFA. Bill earned his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and a Masters in Business Administration from Florida Atlantic University


Post-Conference Workshop:
Thursday, May 20
Workshop C
Target Costing—A Value Based Approach to Competitiveness

gerry50.gif (4295 bytes)INSTRUCTOR
Kenneth A. Crow
President
DRM Associates

For many products, price can be the ultimate battleground.  Many companies react to pricing and cost pressures by taking too little action too late or by simply accepting lower profit margins.  Target costing is a proactive approach to understanding the market-driven pricing requirements to be successful in the marketplace, the steps to establishing cost targets, and the process of proactively managing development activities to achieve these target costs.  This workshop will provide not only a practical understanding of the target costing method, but also a step-by-step guide to achieving target costs and maximizing the customer value proposition.  Case studies and examples will illustrate this process.  By participating in this workshop, you will learn about:

  • An approach to target costing and its key elements
  • Target price – pricing strategies, price elasticity, and maximizing the value proposition
  • How to derive and allocate a target cost – a step-by-step approach
  • How to track and manage to a target cost – tools and process
  • How to achieve target costs with a design-to-cost methodology
  • How to develop concept and design alternatives – tools and methods
  • Value and function analysis
  • Design for excellence – manufacturability, assembly, testability, etc.
  • Checklists by development phase for achieving target cost
  • How to construct a target costing process – including management actions, process steps, and organizational responsibilities

Kenneth A. Crow is President of DRM Associates, a management consulting and training firm specializing in product development and a Principal in PD-Trak Solutions, a firm providing NPD project/process/portfolio management software. He is a recognized expert in the field of new product development and target costing with over twenty-nine years of experience consulting with major companies internationally in aerospace, automotive, capital equipment, consumer products, defense, high technology, and medical equipment.


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Conference Info


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Available Mon-Fri 
9:30am-5pm est