ABSTRACT
We all have become accustomed to waste in our lives, both at work, and away from work. As our lean Herbie team got rolling-literally by using the “Womack Wheel”—identification of customer value and removal of waste in our R&D processes were our initial objectives. But to do that, we needed to determine what was waste and what was value. For the latter, we looked to our customers, both internal and external, for the answer. As you move forward with lean in your product-development processes, ask, “What do our customers value? Will our customers be willing to pay for this?” If you are like us at Goodyear early in our lean initiative, you will be surprised at what you learn and amazed at the amount of waste that gets in the way of delivering value.
