A Mathematical Model for Lean New Product Development

Lean, which is becoming popular for project management, focuses on value maximization. Lean mostly relies on teamwork and brainstorming to map projects` processes, activities and their values. These invaluable techniques are not enough to optimize value, as evident by the increasing number of works aimed at improving Lean. We develop a quantitative model that maximizes project value and generates detailed project plans. The model considers interactions between technical performance, time and cost, which are typically ignored in existing Lean models, or dealt with on an intuitive basis. Analyzing such interactions is important to increase project values. The model can be used to provide an efficient frontier that includes the best project plans. We provide an illustrative example to demonstrate possible benefits.
The new model improves Lean project management methodologies.