A mixed performance and adoption alignment framework for guiding leanness and agility improvement initiatives in product development

Product development personnel are increasingly challenged to improve their development processes to increase the performance of their organization, and a significant number of lean and agile improvement initiatives have been proposed in the literature. However, the large number of “leagile” (a combination of lean and agile) potential initiatives generates questions of how and when to select one possible improvement solution over another. This article proposes an operational approach to guide managers in identifying adequate leagile improvement initiatives based on performance targets and an adoption alignment framework. The proposed framework includes a maturity-based causal/relations matrix, which links product development process objectives and potential improvement enablers according to the actual leagile maturity level of the organization. The proposed adaptable framework has been tested successfully in multiple product development divisions of an international firm positioned in the luxury product industry. Our experience showed that all divisions were able to measure their current leagility maturity and developed proper improvement plans aligned with the strategic objectives of each group. While the proposed framework does not provide any sequence of transformation initiatives, the framework acted as clear communication and benchmarking tools across the entire organization and produced positive outcomes in terms of time-to-market reduction.

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