Lean design

We have discussed about the value of being lean in design. Being lean in the design stage can add far more value than it can add in the manufacturing stage of the product or a service. Good design must satisfy all the requirements of the consumer as well as the requirements of manufacturing and distribution. In other words a lean design should eliminate the manufacturing and operational wastes.

I found an interesting water filter design. It has two outlets one supplying hot water and the other supplying cold water. This might be a good manufacturing design as opposed to the models where they have three outlets with one for normal water since this will reduce somewhat of manufacturing costs. But how will it do in day to day operation.

Most of the people mix hot and cold water both to get the correct temperature they want. So they use energy in heating up water and also they use energy in cooling water and they mix both and waste energy by doing so. In long run this means higher electricity bills and importantly a contribution to the global energy crisis.

Some of the wastes are inbuilt to the process. In designing a process and in selecting machinery we need to be careful. We must evaluate the operational costs with each option we have. It might be costly to buy two small batch processing machines when compared to larger volume machine but in operation it will give greater flexibility and shorter lead-times and hence the competitive advantage for an example.

With the example today we have to keep in mind designs (let it be a product or a process) can influence overall productivity of the operation. Being lean in your design will add greater value than it can add in the manufacturing stages.