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Your Product Development Determines Up to 70% of Your Business Cost and Quality.
Is It Designed to Win?

Faster time to market. Product excellence. Development costs under control. It’s not about working harder – it starts with designing a better system.
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THE CHALLENGE

Sound Familiar?

Most organizations don't have a people problem in product development.
They have a system problem.
Products launch late or miss the market when they do.
Engineering and manufacturing operate in silos. Decisions get made, then unmade.
 
Problems surface too late to fix affordably.
Innovation is expensive, slow, and doesn't compound. Each project starts from scratch.

 

Many organizations build their product development processes organically, adding steps, tools, and checkpoints as problems arise. Over time, complexity compounds: functions work sequentially instead of collaboratively, critical issues get discovered after decisions are locked, and knowledge evaporates at the end of every project.

The result: products that cost too much, take too long, and still miss customer expectations.

Product development decisions lock in up to 70% of your total business cost. If the system is not intentional, neither are the outcomes.
THE SOLUTION

What Is Lean Product & Process Development?

LPPD is an integrated management system combining people, process, and technology to create successful products faster, at lower cost, with less waste.

Not by adding tools. By redesigning the entire system: how teams collaborate, how workflows synchronize, how decisions get made, and how technology enables the work. LPPD aligns engineering, operations, supply chain, and leadership around one goal: deliver better products, sooner, with less friction.

A TechnipFMC practitioner on the cross-functional value stream approach
and why LPPD is a permanent mindset shift.
"I got infected for life. This changed completely the way I think."

Front-load learning

Clarify product purpose and confirm market fit before execution begins, not after resources are committed. 



Collaborate from day one

Engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and operations work together early, when changes are cheap, instead of sequentially, when they're expensive.

Surface trade-offs early

Identify conflicts between cost, quality, manufacturability, and schedule while there is still room to make intentional choices.

Build compounding knowledge

Capture what works, standardize it, and reuse it so each development cycle starts ahead of the last one.

 

Synchronize workflows

Align teams, milestones, and decisions so work flows instead of waiting in queues.

Reduce time to market

Speed comes from eliminating wasted motion, late rework, and decision delays, not from cutting validation steps.

 

THE DIFFERENCE

Traditional Development vs. LPPD

Sequential handoffs create predictable failure modes. LPPD replaces them with designed flow.

Traditional Development Dimension Lean Product & Process Development
Sequential handoffs: design, then manufacturing, then supply chain Flow Concurrent collaboration across all functions from concept to launch (Designed)
Problems discovered after design is locked Problem Detection Trade-offs identified and resolved before decisions harden (Early)
Long and unpredictable; dependent on rework cycles Time to Market Reduced 30-50% without cutting corners (Faster)
High cost from late design changes and manufacturing rework Development Cost Lower cost: waste designed out, not inspected out (Lower)
Lessons disappear; next project starts from scratch Knowledge Reusable knowledge systems accelerate every future project (Compounding)
Each project is a cost center to manage Strategic Impact Development becomes a competitive advantage (Advantage)
PROOF POINTS

What LPPD Partners Achieve

These are not pilot results. They are operational outcomes from organizations that redesigned how they develop products.

GE-appliances

Decision-Flow Mapping Eliminated Project Delays

Challenge: Product development projects stalled waiting for cross-functional decisions

LPPD Approach: Decision bottlenecks that previously delayed projects by weeks were eliminated through structured decision-flow mapping.

RESULTS
Schedule achievement went from 31.8% to 90%
Over $20 million in annual revenue improvement

"We thought of lean as a productivity tool. But then we quickly learned it’s really a way to transform your business."

— Kevin Nolan, President & Chief Executive OfficerGE Appliances, a Haier Company





technipFMC

Redesigned Subsea Oil & Gas System

The Challenge: Product development projects were stalling waiting for cross-functional decisions. Approval bottlenecks were eroding schedule reliability.

LPPD Approach: Redesigned entire value stream. Engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and services working concurrently instead of sequentially.

RESULTS

50% weight reduction
33% fewer parts
33% faster lead time on future orders

"We realized the full potential of our product when we redesigned the value stream addressing engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and services."

— Paulo Couto, SVP Engineering, TechnipFMC 

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Companies We've Worked With

GEA
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miller-knoll
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GE-appliances
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pella-dot-cmyk
technipFMC
Kalsec-R
ADM Logo Primary (1)
gilbarco
Nucleus Software Logo for LEI Website
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150+
Partner organizations coached in LPPD and lean transformations
29K+
People trained in lean thinking and practice
150+
Years of combined lean coaching experience on our faculty

Ready to discuss your product development system? No sales pitch. No obligation.

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THE CO-LEARNING PARTNERSHIP MODEL

How LPPD Works in Practice

LPPD is not a training course. It is a multi-year engagement focused on building permanent capability inside your organization.

Diagnose Your Current Development System

We start by understanding your current state, not by prescribing solutions. How do products move from concept to launch? Where do delays, rework, and misalignment happen? What knowledge exists but does not transfer?

Map and Redesign Your Development Value Stream

Working with your cross-functional teams, we map the entire flow from customer need to delivered product, not just engineering. Then we redesign it: eliminate handoff delays, front-load critical decisions, synchronize workflows, and build in learning loops.

Pilot Improvements on Live Projects

Theory does not change behavior. Real projects do. We coach your teams as they apply LPPD principles to active development work, solving actual problems, making real decisions, and delivering measurable results.

Develop Leaders in A3 Thinking

Sustainable change requires leaders who coach problem-solving rather than delegate it. We develop your leaders in A3 thinking, a structured approach that builds problem-solving capability at every level of the organization.

Transfer Mastery to Your Organization

Our goal is not to make you dependent on LEI. It is to transfer mastery to your organization so you continue improving long after our engagement ends. No proprietary lock-in. No consultant dependency. Only capability that stays with your people.

SELF-QUALIFICATION
INDUSTRIES WE'VE SUPPORTED

Is LPPD Right for Your Organization?

LPPD Principles Are Industry-Agnostic

LPPD creates the most value in specific conditions. If several of these resonate, a conversation is worth your time.

Any organization that develops products or services can benefit from a more intentional development system. The specifics vary. The principles are universal.

Your development system has outgrown itself

What worked with 10 engineers and 5 products does not work at 100 engineers and 50 products.

Time to market is a competitive issue

Late launches mean lost revenue, missed market windows, and competitors capturing your customers.

Margin pressure is real

Development cost overruns, late design changes, and manufacturing rework are eroding profitability.

Functions do not collaborate effectively

Engineering and manufacturing point fingers. Supply chain gets surprised. Operations inherits the problems.

You want to build capability, not rent it

You are done with consultants who deliver reports and leave. You want your people to own the improvement.

  • Automotive
  • Banking and Finance
  • Building Materials
  • Construction
  • Education
  • Food and Beverage
  • Government
  • Healthcare
  • Manufacturing
  • Medical Device
  • Oil and Energy
  • Pharmaceutical
  • Service Industries
  • Technology

ABOUT LEI COACHES

LEI coaches are not traditional consultants. They are former practitioners and educators with direct experience leading product development transformations inside their own organizations.

They work alongside your people, not above them.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to the questions leaders typically raise before starting a conversation with us.

How is LPPD different from Agile development?
Agile focuses on execution speed for predetermined customer value, typically a feature or software component. LPPD focuses on creating new customer value across the entire product lifecycle, from concept through manufacturing to post-delivery service. LPPD considers the full value stream using a holistic systems approach across process, people, and tools. Agile primarily optimizes team flow within software delivery. The two are not mutually exclusive.
 



We already have a Stage-Gate process. Why do we need LPPD?
Stage-Gate provides governance and decision milestones. LPPD redesigns the work that happens between those gates: eliminating waste, front-loading learning, synchronizing cross-functional collaboration, and building reusable knowledge. Many organizations implement LPPD within their existing Stage-Gate framework.
How long does it take to see results?
Pilot projects typically show measurable improvements within 6 to 12 months. Enterprise-wide transformation is a multi-year journey. The timeline depends on your starting point, scope, and organizational commitment.
Do we need to pause active development to implement LPPD?
No. LPPD is implemented on live projects. You improve the system while delivering products. Working on real development challenges is precisely how your teams learn most effectively.
What if we have tried lean before and it didn't stick?
Most lean implementations that don't sustain focus on tools, such as 5S, kanban, and value stream mapping, without redesigning the management system. LPPD addresses the operating system and leader behaviors that make improvements durable. If previous efforts focused on tools but did not develop capability or change how leaders lead, LPPD takes a fundamentally different approach.
What does an LPPD engagement cost?
Investment varies based on scope, organization size, and engagement duration. During our initial conversation, we will discuss your situation and design an approach that delivers value within your budget constraints. We can also discuss starting with a focused pilot before committing to a broader engagement.

 

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

What to Expect After You Reach Out

No sales pitch. No obligation. A structured process to determine whether we can genuinely help.

Discovery Call
(30-45 minutes)

We discuss your current product development challenges, what you have tried, what has not worked, and what business outcomes matter most. We will be direct if LPPD is not a fit.

Diagnostic Assessment

For many engagements, we recommend a brief on-site assessment: observing development work as it happens, interviewing cross-functional team members, and mapping current-state value streams.

Partnership Design

If there is mutual fit, we design an engagement around your specific context: scope, timeline, coaching intensity, learning group participation, and expected ROI.

Stop Accepting Late Launches and Products That Miss the Market

Start building a development system designed to win. The conversation is free. The capability you build lasts.

Schedule a conversation »
Download the LPPD Overview »

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