As manufacturing capacity has become globally available at low cost, the competitive value of manufacturing has declined.  Innovation and the development of new products is now the primary source of value and competitive advantage for companies.  Innovation is the lifeblood of an organization and new product development is the engine that powers growth.

As companies adopt lean methods in their manufacturing environments and cascade these lean techniques to other aspects of their business, companies have realized significant improvements in efficiency.  As the methods are adopted by more aspects of the business, there is a synergetic created where the overall system is better than the combination of the individual parts.  The Product Development system is one of the most crucial and difficult aspects of the business to get right.  Lean product development is much more than simply moving the techniques in manufacturing up-stream to product development.