The Savvy Set Base Design Symposium and Lean Product Development Conference III
Integrating Toyota’s Product Development
System Elements: Putting Toyota’s Lean Principles into Practice
November 14, 2007

Speakers and Topics Presented:

"Set Base Design Engineering Practice: How Nexen does it"
Dave Hein, Vice President Engineering
Nexengroup, Inc.

"Involving Vendors in Set Base Design to Achieve Product Quality and Innovation While Reducing Design Risk"
Merle Meyer, Vice President of Product Development
Rapid Refill Ink Corp

“Initiating Set Base Design and A3 Thinking”
Jim Grossmann, Director of Mechanical Engineering
Starkey Corporation

"Piloting Set Base Design on Projects that Must Meet Schedules"
Gary Kassen, PE, Director of Engineering, Power Division
Eaton Hydraulics

“Learning and Integrating Fundamental Elements of the Toyota Product Innovation and Design System: What a PD Organization can Achieve in 10 Months”
Ron Rotondo, Principal Engineer
Hoffman Enclosures, Inc

"Lean Transformation of Product Engineers: Using A3 Thinking and Related Practices"
Gloria Garcia, Director of Product Engineering
Deluxe Corporation

"Using Customer Centered Design for Lean Assembly to Identify Areas for Design Innovation"
Mike Shipulski, Director of Engineering
Hypertherm, Inc.

"Starting the Fourth Year of Integrating the Toyota Lean Product Design & Development System: Building on the Fundamentals"
Dave Klis, Director of Technical Operations, Commercial Division
The Toro Company

Key Takeaway Comments from Participants

• I learned that problems are good!
  
  
• It was interesting to see how different companies are implementing the Toyota principles and the similarities to my company. I was familiar with lean manufacturing principles, but not from the product development side.
  
  
• The valuable things learned from the conference are too numerous to list, but include: set-based design, A3’s, and CF certification.
  
  
• The most valuable information I received was the specific company examples of SBCE. This will help bridge the gap between the theory and how to implement a system in my company.
  
  
• SBCE can work, and it’s worth the effort to push management to embrace it.
  
  
• This was an outstanding experience because I can directly see how this will improve our product development process.
  
  
• I like the presentations which discuss/present barriers encountered, and how they were dealt with.
  
  
• The valuable things I learned from the conference were the new and effective ways to design/manage projects, as well as defining problems and using the problem solving model.
  
  
• This information will definitely help me build a better design process with my design team and cross-functional team members.
  
  
• I liked it because it gave practical examples of set-based design.
  
  
• One of the valuable things I learned at the conference was the A3 concept; implementation to promote knowledge transfer.
  
  
• This approach was new to me. All of the concepts covered, as well as the overview of their application by various companies in various markets, were valuable.
  
  
• I found the discussion of value distribution to be valuable as a good tool for prioritization of concept convergence.
  
  
• Our product teams need to use A3 and more visual management.
  
  
• I valued learning different ways to incorporate Toyota principles into current processes.
  
  
• I learned the value of concise, immediately accessible information on project planning/status and knowledge through A3.

Conference Sponsors:

The Savvy Consortium is a group of product development leaders who generate new knowledge for improving their product development people, practices and methods. Individual members study and research the thinking and the basic practices observed in the Toyota Product Innovation, Design and Development System. Members interpret the fundamentals and apply them in their PD organizations. Members meet to discuss their experiences, which generate the new knowledge not found in books, white papers and articles.