Allen C. Ward is considered by many as the patriarch of lean product development. According to James Womack, founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute, “although many have studied Toyota as astute observers, few truly understood what they were observing and extracted the principles that made Toyota’s methods effective.” Since it is generally not possible (or even reasonable) to duplicate Toyota’s product development system in other companies directly, it is critical to understand why it works in order to leverage the principles in other companies. Based on a decade of direct research at Toyota, Dr. Ward provides tremendous insight into what is important for effective development processes and how they work. Although he died in 2004, Dr. Ward is still seen as a prominent figure in the lean product development movement and held in high esteem by those who want to learn lean development methods. Dr. Ward is author of the book, Lean Product and Process Development, considered by many to be the authoritative text in lean product development; and co-author of numerous academic papers on engineering design theory and methodology.
Dantar P. Oosterwal is a lean product development practitioner, advisor, speaker, and author. Oosterwal first learned and drove implementation of lean product development methods as director of product development at Harley-Davidson. This effort led to a four-fold improvement in product development throughput and over 50% acceleration in time-to-market with a customer satisfaction level of 98% repurchase intent. Later, as global vice president of innovation at Sara Lee, he led the implementation of lean product development methods, which resulted in a 30% improvement in product development throughput and a four-fold increase in revenue from new innovation. He co-founded the Milwaukee Consulting Group focused on helping organizations implement continuous improvement principles. Dantar is the author of the Shingo Prize winning book, The Lean Machine, which describes the lean product development transformation at Harley-Davidson. As an avid proponent of lean product development, he continues to promote lean product development and share his experiences to help companies learn and institute lean development practices. He writes articles and is a popular speaker at events. He has recently co-founded Develop Lean (DevelopLean.com) to help promote lean product development practices. Dantar holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Durward K. Sobek II is a professor and program coordinator of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering at Montana State University. He holds PhD and MS degrees in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an AB degree in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College. Dr. Sobek has been researching lean product development and lean healthcare for two decades, focusing on how organizations can increase their performance capacity through the application of lean principles. He is co-founder of the not-for-profit Lean Product and Process Development Exchange, Inc. whose mission is to share and expand the body of knowledge around lean product and process development. He is a frequent presenter, and has written published articles in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management among other publications. He is co-author of Lean Product and Process Development, 2nd edition, with Allen C. Ward; and co-author of the Shingo Prize winning book Understanding A3 Thinking: A Critical Component of Toyota’s PDCA Management System.