Lean Design ®

For more information on Design Profit, Lean Design, Quality Report Card, and TechTransfer please download PDF file.

Lean Design ® is Munro & Associates’ signature process. No one in the world has had attained more success or acclaim than Munro when it comes to refining products. Our processes consistently net higher profit and customer satisfaction than all other techniques combined.

Lean Design ® identifies all the manufacturing inhibiters such as Poka Yoke problems & ergonomic issues before they become a problem on the floor. Lean Design ®, coupled with our internal software program TechTransfer™ will reduce costs from the concept through detail design phases. A Key objective will be to integrate as many functions into the fewest parts as economically viable. By combining, not eliminating, functionality and features and delight customers with less manpower, fewer parts and greatly reduced quality issues.

To ensure this outcome, Lean Design ® has four major parts:

Part 1) A baseline analysis of a product, including cost information. This baseline analysis involves mapping out each step it takes to make the product. This map, in turn, informs efforts at redesign by clearly pointing out where the best opportunities exist.

Part 2) Cross-functional Brainstorming for Redesign. This step in a Lean Design ® event draws upon the experience, strategies, and support of cross functional teams to redesign the product.

Part 3) Prioritizing. The cross-functional teams prioritize the results of their brainstorming into three phases:

• Redesign 1, which essentially involves no cost;
• Redesign 2, which involves more cost, time, and engineering validation; and
• Redesign 3, which would involve substantial costs, including retooling.

When Munro & Associates conducts a Lean Design ® event on behalf of our clients, we provide them with a hard copy report of every redesign idea, described pictorially.

Examples of the Reports that Result from Part 3 of a Lean Design ® Event

PICTORIAL

Idea #8 Use low cost wire from bracket for L-shaped bracket

EXCEL CHART
Tracks Each Redesign Idea

Part 4) Report Out. The overall results are graphed out in a Lean Design ® Executive Summary, which includes potential cost savings

The methodology behind Lean Design ® stems from the knowledge that 70% of a product’s costs tracks back to its design. To fully comprehend a product’s design, Lean Design ® looks at how a product is put together by analyzing the following:

1. What does it take to pick up a part? (For example: one hand, two hands, or a crane?)
2. What is the part-to-operator interface? (For example: difficult, dirty, or dangerous?)
3. What is the part-to-part interface? (For example: does the operator have to fight gravity, use complex motions, or is his or her vision restricted?)
4. What tools are required? (For example: a hand tool, a power tool, or an arc welder?)
5. What operations are required? (For example: CDI, part inspection, or the use of a crane?)
6. What fasteners are involved and how many of each?

Along the way, Lean Design ® uses a series of symbols for each component and assembly step to clearly map out the process.

= Tooling Operation = Tooling Operation = Part = Operation = Sub-Assembly

Color green = good part All other = opportunity for redesign

What is the difference between Lean Design ® and other DFM/DFA or VA/VE methods?

1. Lean Design ® goes beyond focusing on cost reduction of the individual parts that comprise a product: it tells you which parts you should eliminate and why.
2. Lean Design ® uses the assembly process to guide you through the product’s whole design. This prevents subjective part selection common to other methodologies.
3. By using the assembly process to drive the evaluation, Lean Design ® guides you through an evaluation of your entire design architecture.
4. Lean Design ® considers the operator and what he or she needs to do to assemble the product. This reveals issues such as ergonomic concerns.
5. Lean Design ® looks to incorporate new technology into redesigns.

An example of Lean Design ® on an armrest would look like this:

EXISTING ARMREST BRACKET ASSEMBLY
Piece Functional Linear Assembly

The above armrest bracket assembly employs a piece-functional-linear assembly design rationale. This means that each part exists because of assumptions about form and function that build one upon the other.

When we put this armrest bracket assembly through Lean Design ® analysis, the result is a flow chart of red steps (i.e., opportunities for redesign) and only one green part, (i.e., good part).

Lean Design ® Analysis of
EXISTING ARMREST BRACKET ASSEMBLY
Piece Functional Linear Assembly

The goal we strive for is product simplification. We know that the simpler the product, the higher the quality, because there is less opportunity for something to go wrong. The example below might be a reasonable redesign of the armrest, this time changing the material to a plastic injection molded part.

Undoubtedly, this is an improvement. In fact, our Lean Design ® analysis would reveal that this part would result in a savings of approximately 50 % over the original.

Armrest Redesign 1

But another principle of Lean Design ® is that the first design is never the simplest. Also, Lean Design ® looks to incorporate new technology into redesigns.

From this perspective, Munro & Associates proposed an entirely new concept for the armrest, which fully integrated not only the original bracket and fittings, but also the cloth covering, padding, and everything needed to make a product that looked good, added value, performed well, and was easy to manufacture at a profit.

Munro Armrest Redesign
Integrated Armrest Technology with Living Hinge

Since its founding in 1988, Munro & Associates has had extensive experience with nearly every major automaker. In North America, our consultants have typically succeeded in generating more than $1,000 in cost savings ideas per fully optioned vehicle, making the automotive industry among our biggest customers and the greatest believers in our methods. But it doesn’t stop there. Lean Design ® works, and has been used successfully by Munro & Associates on everything from Mattel’s Barbi to NASA’s Space Station.