Implementation of Lean Product Development in a University Course and an Industry Project: Lessons Learned from a Comparative Study

The global competition in products and business is becoming intense. Most companies hope to stay ahead of their competitors during global expansion. To stay competitive in the marketplace, Lean Product Development (LPD) has drawn huge attention both from the industry and the academia because (1) enterprises are facing challenges in product development, e.g., long lead time in development, failure in innovation, and poor management in design activities, etc.; (2) most innovations in universities are often impractical and lack economic value. The purpose of the study was to uncover and to compare the processes and the design outcomes of the implementation of LPD among university student groups and among enterprise research and development (R&D) teams. In this study, product development teams were formed among industrial design juniors, as well as among the staff at the R&D department of a hair clipper company. All participants were asked to develop either a hair dryer or an electric hair clipper following the LAMDA (Look, Ask, Model, Discuss, and Act) cycle in LPD under the guidance of the same instructor. The LPD activities and the design outcomes were observed and analyzed by two researchers. Results showed that the student teams generally (1) were more able to think out of box without the constraints of department silos, (2) had more passion towards product and users, (3) had fewer problems in cross-functional collaborations, etc. On the other hand, the R&D teams were generally (self-) restricted psychologically and physically by the organizational culture and structure, and low work motivations, etc., thus resulting in the insufficient innovation momentum. Results of this study provide insight regarding the implementation of LPD especially in industry settings.