Technology Innovation Management Review March 2015

Optimizing Innovation with the

Lean and Digitize Innovation Process
Bernardo Nicoletti

“ Itto must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult ”

plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to
management than the creation of a new system. For the
initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the
preservation of the old institution and merely the lukewarm
defense in those who gain by the new ones.

Nicolo Machiavelli (1469–1527)

Philosopher and playwright

Actionable knowledge to improve innovation and bring value to the customers and organiza-
tions is essential in today's economy. In the past, there have attempts to apply Lean Think-
ing and Six Sigma to the innovation processes, with mixed results. The aim of this article is
discuss how to improve innovation processes using the Lean and Digitize Innovation pro-
cess, which integrates digitization into the Lean Six Sigma method. Through the redesign of
innovation processes and their automation, the process aims to add value to customers, im-
prove effectiveness, eliminate waste, minimize operating costs, and reduce time-to-market.
This new method is characterized by seven stages, or "the 7 Ds" (define, discover, design, de-
velop, digitize, deploy, and diffusion), with 29 steps. This article describes the Lean and Digit-
ize Innovation process and presents cases where the approach has been successful in
helping innovation processes from start to end: from the definition of the value for the cus-
tomers up to the implementation of a prototype and engineering of the delivery processes.

Introduction Thinking in innovation processes. They require holistic

rethinking for the implementation of Lean Thinking.
Innovation is crucial to the success of any business. Far
too many organizations spend the bulk of their efforts This article focuses on the lean processes, describes
on improving production, finance, and marketing and their phases, and shows how to use and benefit from
not enough efforts on improving innovation. Innova- the combination of Lean Six Sigma with digitization to-
tion is becoming increasingly more important as the de- wards a powerful lean innovation method for improving
mands of the global economy increase. Organizations processes. The method aims to add value to customers,
need to be agile, current, and smart in order to face the improve effectiveness, eliminate waste, minimize oper-
challenges of the changing global economy (Oza & Ab- ating costs, and reduce time-to-market through the re-
rahamsson, 2009; Wilson & Doz, 2011). design of the innovation processes and their
automation. This approach is increasingly necessary for
Lean Innovation represents the systematic interpreta- global success and is an important pre-requisite for suc-
tion of Lean Thinking principles relative to innovation cess in the lean application of innovation processes.
in its different forms. There are few systematic imple-
mentations of Lean Thinking in innovation manage- The Lean and Digitize Innovation process represents
ment, contrary to what has happened in the production the systematic interpretation of Lean Thinking prin-
world (Liker, 2003; Schuh et al., 2009). High uncertain- ciples regarding to the different types of innovation and
ties of processes, novelty, and complexity indicate spe- development, while also taking into account the possib-
cial requirements for the implementation of Lean ilities of automation.

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Technology Innovation Management Review March 2015

Optimizing Innovation with the Lean and Digitize Innovation Process

Bernardo Nicoletti

Review of Literature on Improving colleagues defined four detailed characteristics and de-
Innovation Processes picted the time for implementing these characteristics
on the roadmap, giving an idea of when to introduce
First, we examine the literature that examines issues the elements of Lean Product Development relative to
connected with the implementation of Lean Innova- each other. For organizations intending to implement a
tion. Lean management and innovation are two driving Lean Product Development system, the Lean Innova-
forces of today’s business success. However, with fun- tion Roadmap can serve as a guideline for learning and
damentally different concepts, some aspects of lean continuously improving their organizations.
management may negatively affect an organization’s
ability to be successful with certain types of innova- Gerhard and colleagues (2012) investigated the impact
tions. of lean principles in innovation-intense organizations,
that is, companies of the automotive and machinery in-
Subramanyam, Srinivasan, and Prabaharan (2011) ap- dustries as well as in research facilities. They suggested
plied Lean and Six Sigma to new product development that the implementation of lean principles creates pos-
activities. To make the system effective and deliver the itive effects in technology development, for instance, in
design at the shortest time to market with good quality, reducing the development time and increasing the de-
it is necessary to optimize material cost and design velopment efficiency. They found that out of the exist-
time. Subramanyam and colleagues dealt with an ap- ing lean principles, the two principles of "avoidance of
proach associated with the optimization of the above- waste" and "flow", have the highest influence on the im-
mentioned problems with the strategy of Six Sigma. provement of development activities

Shuh, Lenders, and Hieber (2009) introduced Lean In- Browning and Sanders (2012) pointed out that, when
novation and described the core findings of their survey operations are novel and complex – as in product devel-
on Lean Innovation at the Laboratory for Machine opment, research, information technology, and many
Tools and Production Engineering WZL at RWTH other kinds of projects – cutting out the waste turns out
Aachen University. Their paper focused on the value to be much more challenging. To understand the im-
system, described its elements, and showed how to use pact of lean in an environment characterized by ex-
and benefit from the value system towards powerful treme novelty and complexity, these authors drew on
Lean Innovation. The value system is one core element their experiences with a number of processes, and in
of Lean Innovation, which is the basis for the value particular Lockheed Martin’s lean implementation for
stream design in innovation and development projects. the F-22 fighter aircraft. Their find¬ings lead to a path
The value system defines, structures, and prioritizes that executives and managers can follow to become
"values" adaptively for one specific innovation project. lean without compromising innova¬tion.
All relevant stakeholders in the innovation process,
such as external and internal customers, define the val- Chen and Taylor (2009) presented five propositions
ues considering the organization's strategy and culture. based on a comparison between the lean culture, lean
This activity represents the basis for a consequent design, lean supply chain management, and lean hu-
value-oriented alignment of projects and processes in man resource management with the characteristics and
innovation. contributing factors of different types of innovations.
These authors discussed different strategies for an or-
Hoppmann and colleagues (2011) studied the imple- ganization to achieve the balance and maintain lean
mentation of Lean Product Development . They sur- and innovation at the same time. They analyzed advant-
veyed 113 product development departments of ages, disadvantages, and suitable situations for each
international organizations. Based on the insights strategy.
gained from the testing of the hypotheses and the avail-
able empirical data, they defined a Lean Innovation Nepal (2011) extended the new product development
Roadmap. They used a novel, two-step methodology literature by presenting a case study of a Lean Product
called Adjusted Past Implementation. The resulting Development transformation framework implemented
roadmap for implementing Lean Product Development at a manufacturing firm in the United States. In a depar-
consists of four major phases and shows the introduc- ture from typical Lean Product Development methods,
tion of the eleven Lean Product Development compon- they integrated the design structure matrix and the
ents in the form of eleven overlapping implementation cause and effect matrix into the lean transformation
streams. For each of the components, Hoppmann and framework. In this way, they allowed analysis of the un-

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Technology Innovation Management Review March 2015

Optimizing Innovation with the Lean and Digitize Innovation Process

Bernardo Nicoletti

derlying complexity of a product development system, notions of lean enterprise trans¬formation with that of
and thus facilitating determination of the root causes of innovation. The descriptive understanding of Rockwell
wasteful reworks. They discussed several strategies to Collins, as developed in their paper, draws on publicly
transform the current product development process in- available material to support the identification of the
to a lean process. In order to support the recommen- key elements of a strategic system of innovation.
ded changes in the new product development Srinivasan's analysis highlights the successful use of
processes, they recommended a two-phase improve- technology scanning, internal R&D, and open innova-
ment plan, a new organizational structure roadmap, tion within the innovation system at Rockwell Collins.
and a human resources plan. The results of the Lean Furthermore, the existence of a shared value proposi-
Product Development show a 32% reduction in product tion, a strong organizational culture that recognized
development cycle time due to the proposed new and rewarded innovation, and the requisite organiza-
product development process. Nepal's paper also de- tional infrastructure serve as key enablers to designing
tails the lessons learned and the implications for engin- a strategic system of innovation that is reflective of lean
eering managers based on the case study presented. enterprise thinking.

For organizations to survive and thrive in today's envir- Fichman, Dos Santos, and Zheng (2014) adopted a par-
onment, a key strategy is to leverage innovation capabil- ticularly broad conceptualization of digital innovation
ity through an effective process of converting unmet that allows for a variety of teaching styles and topical
customer needs into successful innovations, thereby emphases for the information system core class. This
creating value for customers, the organizations, and conceptualization includes three types of innovation
other stakeholders. Welo, Olsen, and Gudem (2012) (i.e., process, product, and business model innovation),
demonstrated how Lean Thinking could become a pre- and four stages for the overall innovation process (i.e.,
competitive factor in product innovation through its fo- discovery, development, diffusion, and impact). Based
cus on customer value. The goal of this paper was to de- on this conceptualization, these authors examined the
termine the applicability of user-centered implications of adopting digital innovation as a funda-
methodologies in generating inputs that ultimately lead mental and powerful concept in teaching organizations
to differentiated innovations. Welo and colleagues
presented an office chair case study that implied that, None of the papers examined in this literature review
although user-focus is necessary, it will not inevitably analyzed the actual process of Lean Innovation projects
lead to novel products, because users are engrossed in depth. Thus, the purpose of this article is to intro-
with past and present. duce the Lean and Digitize Innovation Process.

Lean Thinking can even be used to drive general innov- Innovation Processes
ation in organizations (Byrne et al., 2007; Hoerl & Gerd-
ner, 2010). Lean Thinking frees up an organization's Innovation can be in the product or the process (Tush-
resources – people, space, time, and money – such that man & Nadler, 1986). Innovation can also be relative to
more resources can be allocated to innovation projects. organization or to business models (Nicoletti, 2013).
Another consequence of the application of lean is the Breuer (2013) reports some successful examples of
support for a fundamental culture shift. Morale will go Lean Innovation in venturing (see also Euchner, 2013).
up when people in an organization start dealing with Innovation can be classified based on the whether it is
the complexity in the business. Lean Thinking elimin- incremental or radical (Ettlie et al., 1984), or modular or
ates or streamlines the processes and products that architectural (Henderson & Clark, 1990). At the heart of
waste time, that frustrate customers, and that do not the innovation work is the ability to connect the
add value, thus freeing up the time for people to start strategy and tactics associated with developing a sys-
thinking about what should come next (Cross, 2012, tem of innovation from a macro-per¬spective, with the
2013). mechanics of effectively transitioning ideas into
products, processes, organization, or business models.
Lean transformation and innovation have both been
touted as strategies that are essential to the long-term Freeman and Perez (1988) define innovation as the in-
survival of organizations. The question of whether the troduction of new and improved ways of doing things
two approaches can be used simultaneously remains at work. In an economic sense, an innovation is accom-
unanswered. Srinivasan (2010) attempted to derive a plished with the first commercial transaction involving
theory of lean systems of innovation that combines the a new or improved product, process, or organization of

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Technology Innovation Management Review March 2015

Optimizing Innovation with the Lean and Digitize Innovation Process

Bernardo Nicoletti

business model. Thus, innovation is restricted to inten- culture. It represents the basis for a consequent value-
tional attempts to bring about benefits from changes. oriented alignment of innovation projects and pro-
These might include economic benefits, personal cesses. According to Gudem and colleagues (2013), max-
growth, increased satisfaction, improved group coher- imizing customer value is a core principle in
ence, better organizational communication, as well as innovation, but the value definitions used tend to be
productivity and economic measures that are usually based on logical reasoning rather than real-life observa-
taken into consideration. The innovations of techno- tions. These authors, based on empirical insights con-
logy firms often include technological changes such as cerning different stakeholders' perceptions of customer
new products, production processes, the introduction value, suggested a redefinition of the functional
of advanced manufacturing technology, as well as the product value calculation in Lean Product Develop-
introduction of new information and communication ment. Their method integrates emotional customer
technologies (ICT). value into the traditional model, which is based on min-
imizing operating costs and reducing time-to-market.
Many models have been developed for acquiring a bet-
ter understanding of the innovation process. These Lean management and innovation are two driving
models have ranged from simple "pipeline" or "black forces of business success. However, with fundament-
box" models to complicated models. Some of them fo- ally different concepts, some aspects of lean manage-
cus on consumer product innovation; others are con- ment may negatively affect an organization's capability
cerned with industrial innovation. Although numerous to be successful with certain types of innovations. This
models have been developed to describe the innova- article develops a process to minimize such impacts. It
tion process, no model appears to be capable of being is based on combining Lean Six Sigma principles and
used as a generalized model of innovation (Koskinen & tools with automation of the innovation processes. In
Vanharanta, 2002). addition, the article discuss different example where
this process was successful.
Based on observations in the Toyota Production Sys-
tem, Mehri (2006) illustrated some of the negative ef- Value system practices focus on market orientation of
fects of the lean design process on product innovation. products and services. Products and services heavily
In particular, he underlined that the original Lean rely on the supply chain process to contribute to the
Thinking method, rather than allowing open innova- value system. Globalization, competition, and high cost
tion, requires engineers to follow strict flows of design. of production influence the value system imperatives.
Due to a product design approach that is heavily based Organizations involved in the value system are chal-
on benchmarking and standardization, internal innova- lenged with the creation of innovation. ICT can support
tions seem to be impossible. The Lean and Digitized In- the improvements in the performance of innovation in
novation process allows organizations to overcome this many organizations. There are efforts to use ICT as a
challenge. tool to innovate processes, products, and services for es-
tablishing improved management practices to harness
Research Methodology better returns on investment and customer satisfaction

Essential for Lean Innovation is the definition of value Results and Discussion
for the innovation itself. Therefore, the starting point of
Lean and Digitize Innovation is a systematic method to Several stages compose the Lean and Digitize (short for
define and handle target values and requirements re- Lean Six Sigma and Digitize) Innovation process. To be
garding the innovation as an enabler for a lean develop- successful, Lean and Digitize Innovation must adopt a
ment process – the value system. The value system process that this article describes as "the 7 Ds: define,
represents a framework for mapping value in a holistic, discover, design, develop, digitize, deploy, and diffu-
hierarchical, dynamic, and transparent way (Schuh et sion. It is essential to apply this methodology and its
al., 2008). tools in strong partnership between the sectors of the
organization involved, including quality and support
The value system defines, structures, and prioritizes departments (such as ICT, finance, or operations)
"values" adaptively for one specific innovation project. (Nicoletti, 2012). Stakeholders from all parties need to
All relevant stakeholders in the innovation processes, align in setting up and staffing the improvement project
such as external and internal customers, define the val- team. Perhaps more importantly, the organizations
ues, while considering the organization strategy and must treat the initial application of the Lean and Digit-

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Technology Innovation Management Review March 2015

Optimizing Innovation with the Lean and Digitize Innovation Process

Bernardo Nicoletti

ize Innovation process as the beginning of an iterative

cycle that generates continuous improvement and leads
to a change in the culture of the organizations towards
Lean thinking (Womack & Jones, 2003). A "problem" or
"challenge" should not trigger process-improvement ef-
forts. It should be a substantial part of the organization-
al culture.

It is important to blend process improvement and ICT

technology. Based on research and experience, one can
profitably use the Lean and Digitize Innovation process.
In reference to Lean Innovation, Lean and Digitize In-
novation can be summarized as follows. It can be di-
vided into seven stages and 29 steps, as described below
and illustrated in Figure 1. At the end of each stage are
"toll gates", where the project needs to be checked by
the innovation steering committee.

Stage 1: Define
In this stage, the environment is defined to set the
ground for the innovation.

1. Context: identify the needs or the requests of the cus- Figure 1. The Lean and Digitize Innovation process and
tomers, shareholders, and employees, as well as the its seven stages, or "the 7 Ds"
challenge of competitors and the degree of respect
for compliance (e.g., legislation and regulations)
9. Selection: finding and evaluating an innovation to po-
2. Culture: detect the culture of the organization, of the tentially develop or adopt
community, and of the nation in which the organiza-
tion is located 10. Metrics: translate the innovation and the VoC into
Critical-to-Quality (CtQ) factors
3. Vision: tackle the problems of effectiveness, effi-
ciency, economy, and quality of innovation 11. As-Is: map the existing situation in terms of
products, processes, organization, or business models
4. Strategy: define the possible content of innovation
Stage 3: Design
5. Kick-off: launch the project during a special meeting In this stage, the framework and the sequence of activit-
and notify all the stakeholders ies are defined.

6. Governance: define how to manage the project and 12. Lean: define how to innovate with the support of the
set up the team team in workshops and meetings

7. Voice of the Customer: listen to the Voice of the Cus- 13. Kaizen Plan: define the improvement intervention
tomers (VoC) associated with the potential innova- plan
tion and verify it
14. Architecture Design: define the rules, policies,
Stage 2: Discover and process structure of the potential innovation
In this stage, new ideas are discovered for potential de-
velopment into a process, product, organization, or Stage 4: Develop
business model innovation. In this stage, an idea is developed into a usable innova-
tion.
8. Invention: the creation of something new through a
organization’s own creative process 15. Build: construct the chosen solutions

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Optimizing Innovation with the Lean and Digitize Innovation Process

Bernardo Nicoletti

16. Packaging: surround the core technology with com- 27. Assimilation: when individuals and other units ab-
plementary products and services that together form sorb the innovation into their daily routines and the
a solution that can be effectively used for a given pur- work life of the firm
pose by a target adopter
28. Appropriation: involves such tasks as managing in-
17. Configure: decide which technology features will be tellectual property and the ecosystem of comple-
used, whether they will be used as is or with adapta- mentary products and services so that profits are
tions, how the technology will be integrated with oth- protected from suppliers, customers, and imitators
er technologies the organization already has in place,
how related organizational elements (e.g., structures, 29. Transformation: the technology and organization to
processes) will be changed, and how the organiza- take advantage of the new opportunities brought
tion will absorb and make use of the technology about by the innovation; transformations can also
happen at the market and societal levels
18. Change management: manage the changes
Stages 3, 4, and 5 should be done with an Agile ap-
Stage 5: Digitize proach, doing several cycles, or "springs" in the Agile
In this stage, the automation is applied at the highest terminology. An Agile approach is a development meth-
possible level. od based on iterative and incremental development,
where requirements and solutions evolve through col-
19. Implementation: implement the digitized application laboration between self-organizing, cross-functional
teams (Socha et al., 2013). It promotes adaptive plan-
20. Test: unit tests, system tests, integration tests, ning, evolutionary development and delivery, and a
and user acceptance tests should all be conducted time-boxed iterative approach, and it encourages rapid
and flexible responses to change. It is a conceptual
Stage 6: Deploy framework promoting tight interactions throughout the
In this stage, the innovation is implemented and the an- development cycle.
cillary activities are performed.
Margaria and Steffen (2010) stressed the simplicity of
21. Deploy: implement the chosen solution the Agile approach. Its importance in introducing in-
novation in software development has been stressed
22. Document: issue the documents related to the in- (Aaen, 2008). Brown and Levison (2011) also high-
novation lighted how Agile can foster innovation. A similar
concept was introduced for instructional systems devel-
23. Verify: control the improvements opment (Groves et al., 2012).

24. Internal and External Benefits: assess the benefits, The Agile Manifesto is based on twelve principles (Beck
both external (i.e., take notice of customers, share- et al., 2001). They can be customized in connection
holders, and employees satisfaction) and internal with Lean and Digitize Innovation:
(i.e., assess the profitability, market share, and intern-
al improvements related to the new process) 1. Customer and organization satisfaction should be
pursued by rapid delivery of useful innovation
25. Lessons Learned: learn from the initiative
2. Requirement changes should be welcomed, even late
26. Celebration: acknowledge the team’s work in the innovation process

Stage 7: Diffusion 3. Incremental working innovations should be de-

In this stage, it is necessary to assemble and arrange the livered frequently (e.g., every few weeks rather than
resources necessary to i) persuade and enable a popula- months)
tion of organizations or individuals to adopt and use
the innovation and ii) to diffuse or spread it across a 4. Incremental working innovations are the principal
population of potential users. measure of progress

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Technology Innovation Management Review March 2015

Optimizing Innovation with the Lean and Digitize Innovation Process

Bernardo Nicoletti

5. Development should be sustainable; the team must Yamashima, Ishida, and Mizuyama (2005) describe a
be able to maintain a constant pace new method, named the Innovative Product Develop-
ment Process (IPDP). It systematically integrates QFD
6. There should be close, daily cooperation between with TRIZ and enables the effective and systematic cre-
business people and the innovation team ation of technical innovation for new products. In IP-
DP, the target products' functions and mechanisms are
7. In-person conversation is the best form of communic- deployed in parallel into hierarchical structures, and
ation (co-location but also virtual teams) the mechanism that most requires technical innovation
is specified from an analysis of customers' needs by cal-
8. Projects should be built around motivated individu- culating a mechanism weight. Then, the technical prob-
als, who should be trusted lems to be solved are defined by considering the
relationship between the specified mechanism and cor-
9. Continuous attention should be paid to technical ex- responding functions or quality characteristics. The ap-
cellence and good design plication of TRIZ helps in developing the “technical”
innovation. The technical innovation of a washing ma-
10. Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of chine proved the effectiveness of IPDP.
work not done – is essential
Another important tool is prototyping, which is both a
11. Teams should be self-organizing culture and a language (Kelley, 2001). Just about any-
thing can be prototyped – a new product or service, a
12. Adaptation to the changing environment is encour- process, even an organization or a business model.
aged What counts is moving the ball forward, achieving
some part of a goal.
Tools
In the case of product innovations, Digital Mock Up
Many tools can be used in conjunction with the process (DMU) is a concept that allows the description of a
described. They can come from the tools used in Lean, product, usually in 3D, for its entire life cycle (Sub-
Six Sigma, Agile management, and digitization. This art- ramanyam et al., 2011). The product design, manufac-
icle will not consider the latter ones, because since they turing, and support engineers work together to create
are extensive and well covered in many publications. and manage the DMU. One of the objectives is to have
The following discussion does not consider all the pos- important knowledge of the innovation to replace any
sible tools that can be used but only the most appropri- physical prototypes with virtual ones, using 3D com-
ate. puter graphics techniques. As an extension, it is fre-
quently referred to as Digital Prototyping or Virtual
One of the best tools for process design is Quality Func- Prototyping. The benefits of DMU are:
tion Deployment (QFD), commonly known as the
House of Quality. It identifies the potential customer 1. Reduced time-to-market by identifying potential is-
value of the innovation based on the customer's (be sues earlier in the design process
they internal or external) needs and an innovation's
(normally a product) quality characteristics. The analys- 2. Reduced product development costs by minimizing
is through QFD is used to determine when a new innov- the number of physical prototypes that need to be
ation is useful, so excess resources are not consumed for built
innovation that may not be beneficial.
3. Increased product quality by allowing a greater num-
Another useful tool is TRIZ (a Russian acronym for The- ber of design alternatives to be investigated before a
ory of Inventive Problem Solving). The requirements for final one is chosen
innovation can be defined by introducing the TRIZ prob-
lem-solving approach in finding innovative solutions to There are several practices connected with the Agile ap-
technical problems, especially in product development proach, such as extreme programming from software
processes. TRIZ is implemented to define the solutions engineering, which enables the team to work together
necessary to improve these processes. The use of TRIZ is to determine goals and shared objectives; the rational
beneficial with the lean practice because it efficiently unified process from both systems and software engin-
utilizes resources in the system to eliminate waste. eering because of its iterative development methodo-

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Technology Innovation Management Review March 2015

Optimizing Innovation with the Lean and Digitize Innovation Process

Bernardo Nicoletti

logy; the focus on eliminating waste from lean manufac- Business success starts with understanding the chal-
turing; and the daily scrum update meetings from lenges the customers need to solve. It requires reams of
product development. These processes enable the in- information for answers. However, as data sources pro-
novation team to adapt to changing requirements, re- liferate, organizations risk being overwhelmed. The
duce the project risk, increase the visibility of team Lean and Digitize Innovation process has proved partic-
progress, involve stakeholders and learners from the be- ularly beneficial in these cases.
ginning of projects, and speed up the creation of value
that the team makes to the business. Veolia Water – the water division of Veolia Environ-
nement, a French company that is the global leader in
Innovation in organizations is important. A key to ef- environmental businesses that include water, waste,
fective and efficient innovation is the ability to commer- and energy – use sifts through masses of information for
cialize new products quickly and economically while business intelligence (Laîné, 2014). Starting in 2007, Ve-
leveraging the advantages of global outsourcing. The olia Water implemented a program to identify and man-
growing role of global outsourcing in innovation repres- age strategic knowledge for competitive intelligence and
ents a paradigm shift that has had a large impact on in- patent services that help the organization anticipate
novation and commercialization, as noted by Marion technological developments and environmental threats
and Friar (2012). They explored the use of outside in- and sort information from specialized sources – includ-
novation and commercialization resources, from con- ing databases, websites, and institutional sources and
tract employees to short-run manufacturers. They then compile targeted information for its experts to analyze.
synthesized their research into four areas where innova-
tion operators could most effectively leverage out- Not all of an organization's knowledge resides in data-
sourcing throughout the innovation continuum. bases. Each employee's knowledge is even richer, but
Opportunities include developing strong strategic part- more distributed or isolated by function. Social innova-
nerships with outside vendors, using rapid prototyping tion technology inspired by Facebook but tuned for
resources to support agile development, using short- business can use employee knowledge regardless of loc-
run manufacturers to test products and markets before ation or role.
building to volume, and using expert contractors to re-
duce fixed personnel costs. When automotive parts supplier Visteon assembled a
cross-functional global team to develop a new concept
These tools and approaches are helpful for a lean envir- for an automotive component, it used cloud-based so-
onment because they promote effective and efficient in- cial innovation applications that, in a lean and digitized
novation. way, facilitate collaboration, idea sharing, and progress
tracking (Laîné, 2014).
Business Cases
Misra and Choudhary (2010) presented the efforts of a
The best examples of the Lean and Digitize Innovation rug company in the direction of an innovation cycle
process have been tested and implemented in General management to ensure a development-oriented value
Electric (Nicoletti, 2006). General Electric teaches in- chain. They developed a framework to examine initially
novation operators to use Lean and Digitize Innovation the ICT intervention scenario and then how ICT can me-
to respect all their processes using a few of the lesser- diate in certain areas in the value chain.
known lean tools (Immelt, 2012; Prokesch, 2009):
Conclusions and Further Research
• 7-ways
This article presents a Lean and Digitized Innovation
• Pugh matrix process that has proved very successful in a certain
number of business cases. The Lean and Digitize Innov-
• Mock-up ation process is based on the application of several
stages described as "the 7 Ds": define, discover, design,
• Kaizen develop, digitize, deploy, and diffusion). These seven
stages are further divided into 29 steps. The process is
• 5 Why’s based on Lean Six Sigma principles but optimizes the
use of ICT systems and agile methodologies to tackle the
• Right-size machine prototyping novelty and complexities in innovation processes.

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Optimizing Innovation with the Lean and Digitize Innovation Process

Bernardo Nicoletti

Improving the innovation process is the competitive ad- Acknowledgements

vantage in innovation-intense industries, as required
by today challenging times. The combination of lean An earlier version of this article was presented at the
and digital technologies helps in making organizations 2014 International Conference on Engineering, Techno-
faster and more efficient than competitors, thus creat- logy, and Innovation (ICE), which was held from June
ing the basis for competitiveness and future success. In 23rd to 25th in Bergamo, Italy. The ICE conference dis-
this context, the transfer and application of lean prin- cusses systems engineering as a socio-technical task,
ciples and digitization is an appropriate approach to with a focus on design of products and services, and the
face these challenges. entrepreneurial innovation process for its adoption in
society and the economy.
The Lean and Digitize Innovation process presented in
this article has proved successful in a certain number of
business cases in manufacturing companies. It would References
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Technology Innovation Management Review March 2015

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