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Six Sigma and lean production are established concepts in industry and academia. Both have given rise to associated concepts that have been applied in product development: Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and Lean Product Development (LPD), respectively. Proposals are being published for the merger of DFSS and LPD, and the purpose of this paper is to discuss potential benefits and risks of such proposals.

The paper is based on an interview study encompassing 11 interviews at seven companies.

The results show that a possible merger of DFSS and LPD could prove beneficial in providing guidance both on the structure and the content of improvement efforts. Further, a merger has a potential of supporting radical, as well as incremental, improvements. However, differences in industrial practices that should be considered in applications of a merged initiative are the overall goal of the improvement work (cost reduction versus waste reduction), the emphasis on what to do or on how to do it, and the documentation demanded (extensive versus short and visual).

This study has taken DFSS and LPD applications as its starting point, as the merged initiative of DFSS and LPD has started to develop further studies based on the implementation of the merged initiative would be of value. These studies could especially focus on the organisation of improvement work, identified in this paper as a potential area of conflict.

This paper discusses potential benefits as well as risks of merging DFSS and LPD based on industrial experiences. Consideration of the differences addressed, by practitioners as well as academics, will contribute to a well thought‐out design of a merger of the two concepts.

This study aims to analyze the relationship of work spirituality, organizational commitment and performance of rural credit institution (Lembaga Perkreditan Desa [LPD]) administrators.

To obtain the data, the researcher uses the interview and questionnaire techniques. The questionnaire is used as the research instrument whose validity and reliability have been tested. This study uses the quantitative approach. The analysis technique used is the path analysis. The significance level of the mediation role is analyzed by using Sobel test.

The work spirituality is proven to give a positive and significant effect to the performance of administrator and organizational commitment. It can be summarized that the higher the work spirituality, the better the performance at work and the higher organizational commitment. The organizational commitment also gives a positive and significant effect to the LPD administrator’s performance. The organizational commitment is proven to be the partial mediator variable for the relationship between the work spirituality and work performance of LPD administrator.

First, LPD as the druwe institution or owned by the traditional village has to be directed to the attempt of improving the standard of living of Krama Desa Adat and supporting the development of the traditional village. Second, it is important for LPD to be run by the human resource with high work spirituality; thus, it can positively affect their commitment to the organization and improve their performance at work.

The originality of this study is the finding of various empirical studies that have not been explained in an integrated way about the relationship between the work spirituality and organizational commitment, as well as the individual performance. Therefore, this study analyzes further about the relationship among them. In the previous study, there are many researchers who analyze the industry, but few do it in the local wisdom-based organizations such as LPDs that are developing rapidly in Bali.

The purpose of this paper is to review the state of the art of laser powder deposition (LPD), a solid freeform fabrication technique capable of fabricating fully dense functional items from a wide range of common engineering materials, such as aluminum alloys, steels, titanium alloys, nickel superalloys and refractory materials.

The main R&D efforts and the major issues related to LPD are revisited.

During recent years, a worldwide series of R&D efforts have been undertaken to develop and explore the capabilities of LPD and to tap into the possible cost and time savings and many potential applications that this technology offers.

These R&D efforts have produced a wealth of knowledge, the main points of which are highlighted herein.

The purpose of the article is to identify suitable existing lean product development (LPD) framework that is useful to implement in Indian manufacturing industry. The number of successful products is one of the most deciding factors in any organization revenue. Lean principles can be applied across product development processes to eliminate waste activities. Thus, to fulfill the objective, the present study has performed validity and reliability analysis on the existing LPD frameworks with the help of empirical data collected from Indian manufacturing sector through a survey questionnaire methodology.

The empirical data was collected from 180 manufacturing organizations from Indian manufacturing sector. The study has gathered the empirical data from respondents from top and middle level personnel. Factor analysis was conducted on the collected empirical data to find the unidimensionality of the each framework. Reliability of each individual framework was determined through Cronbach’s alpha value. Finally, the frequency distribution analysis was performed to find familiar constructs in the selected frameworks sorted on the basis of validity and reliability analysis.

The present study found that only eight LPD frameworks have displayed unidimensionality with respect to the construct, i.e. the LPD it measures. The study also found that those eight frameworks have displayed a high level of reliability. Further, the study tried to find the most familiar constructs from the selected eight frameworks by applying frequency distribution analysis. The frequency distribution analysis has identified that most of the constructs have showed a high value in terms of mode and mean. The study also concluded that there is a need to develop a new LPD framework, which is suitable to fulfill the requirements of Indian manufacturing industry, as well as global manufacturing industry.

The study collected empirical data from 180 organizations and all of the respondents were restricted from Indian manufacturing industry. Hence, the study believes that there is a chance some more amplification before being generalizes over across the sectors and countries.

The main objective of the present article is to find out the suitability of the existing LPD frameworks to Indian manufacturing sector. The study also anticipates that the products development managers and executives may collect complete information on the existing LPD frameworks and also a chance to executing proper suitable framework in the respective manufacturing organization.

Many practitioners strive to increase the efficiency of their product development. In addition, smaller companies must satisfy customers’ expectations of their product development. These expectations can be e.g. use of specific methodologies such as Lean Product Development (LPD) and/or Design for Six Sigma (DFSS). This study attempts to identify differences and similarities between these methodologies and the connection between them. This comparison is of interest to practitioners that must choose a strategy for their product development as well as to researchers. The aim of both methodologies is to reduce waste and time of development and to raise the quality of a product at the very roots of the product: its development. LPD and DFSS help development managers to structure projects and focus as much as possible on customer expectations and satisfaction.

In recent years, innovative methodologies of product development such as lean product development (LPD) and agile project management (APM) have emerged. Even though previous research studies focused on these subjects, only few of them were focused on traditional industries, as civil construction. The purpose of this paper is to cover a part of this gap by estimating the potential of the application of these two new approaches (LPD and APM) in the construction industry, more specifically on the design stage.

For this, a case study has been conducted in order to understand if some of LPD and APM tools and practices had already been used, and also to evaluate the potential application of these new methodologies. Three Brazilian companies have been evaluated, all of them were exclusive executors of the design stage and presented distinct characteristics (size, structure, business model, etc.).

The results show that there is currently little adherence to LPD and APM practices within the companies studied. In terms of potential application of these new methodologies, the study has identified evidence regarding technical similarities between the reported cases and others mentioned in literature. However, the interviewees’ reception of these concepts was mostly pessimistic, showing considerable resistance to changes in the current process.

According to the analysis, the study identified that the main challenge/hampering to the implementation of these tools in the cases studied herein are the functional organizational structures, the customer–supplier relationships and the internal cultural resistance to change.

According to the literature, on an average, it takes around three to four years to develop a new product and about 50 percent of the costs incurred in product development (PD) tend to be spent on waste that occurs during the PD process. Hence, organizations are implementing various alternative methodologies such as Concurrent Engineering (CE), Lean Product Development (LPD)/Lean New Product Development (LNPD), and Agile Product Development (APD)/Agile New Product Development (ANPD) to improve their existing PD process. However, it is not clear: how does an organisation or a PD manager choose between these alternative methodologies for improving their PD process?

Since the above‐mentioned problem requires multiple factors/criteria/elements (in short, it will be called as “attributes” for the sake of simplicity) to be considered simultaneously; the use of a Multi‐Attribute Decision Making (MADM) model is warranted. The most commonly used MADM model, namely the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is utilized to model the above problem using a hypothetical case situation.

In this paper, the different attributes that are to be considered while making a decision of selecting a suitable PD methodology were identified. Furthermore, the results of AHP indicated that LPD is a better alternative for the case situation under consideration.

According to the authors' knowledge, no paper exists in the literature of AHP or PD or LPD/LNPD that discusses the application of AHP for the selection of a product development methodology, especially for making a strategic decision in a product design and development department of an organisation.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a step‐by‐step implementation framework for lean product development (LPD), from the marketing research on product development process, product design to the launch of final production.

The research approach taken in this paper is built around the primary industry cases, practical approaches and partial solutions available within the existing literature.

The most recent improvement of LPD, from the authors' perspective, focuses on tools and implementation for LPD. In this paper, a detailed step‐by‐step implementation is given after the framework is introduced. Led by value and waste analysis in product development, different tools and techniques which can be used to eliminate wastes were discussed briefly, and then the implementation from Doing the Right Thing to Doing the Right Thing for company transition to lean were proposed elaborately.

Due to time and economic environment limitations, the authors have not covered and implemented this approach in all existing different environments to ensure that it is robust.

The approach described here seeks to overcome other frameworks' weaknesses in terms of the realistic aspect and feasibility, and combines more existing best practice from industry, consultancy and academia into a step‐by‐step framework for the achievement of effective LPD.

This article demonstrates how the Leadership and Professional Development course at Morehouse College, an all-male historically Black college in Atlanta, Georgia, goes beyond teaching traditional leadership and professional development skills and exposes students to the impact of being a “professional of color” in corporate America. This paper will explore the need for African Americans to have skills related to corporate success that go beyond those needed by Whites and the pedagogical techniques used to develop the additional skill sets in undergraduate students of color. Anecdotal and empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of the course is provided.

The aim of this paper is to suggest a redefinition of the functional product value calculation in lean product development (LPD). The proposed method integrates emotional customer value into the traditional model, which is based on minimizing operating costs and reducing time‐to‐market.

Perceptions of customer value among employees at a Norwegian boat manufacturer, customers, and competitors are investigated through a case study. Results are compared with principles for promoting value and minimizing waste in LPD.

Findings from the case study suggest that a less‐than‐perfect match between customer needs and product offerings sometimes improves customer satisfaction. Furthermore, how customers perceive product value depends on experience that may be at variance with current needs. It is also suggested that deep understanding of customer‐defined value does not imply an ability to satisfy that value.

Understanding the position of meaning‐driven and technology‐driven innovation in different types of industries represents a challenge for further research, as does the issue of whether these two are the only dimensions driving a sustainable innovation strategy. Actionable knowledge on how emotional value can be maximized is also needed.

Maximizing customer value is a core principle in LPD, but the value definitions used tend to be based on logical reasoning rather than real‐life observations. This article presents empirical insights concerning different stakeholders' perceptions of customer value, and the resulting implications for the present lean framework.