Profitable Value Streams

Lean Product and Process Development by the late Allan Ward is an interesting view into his extensive research into Toyota’s product development system. I am still reading it (along with Product Development for the Lean Enterprise
by Michael Kennedy. The books present the same basic model in different ways, though I should point out that it Kennedy is obviously a protégé of Dr. Ward.

One key point really jumped out at me, and challenges the traditional mindset of the design engineering community.

The output of product development is a profitable value stream.

Think about that for a minute. How does this mindset alter the focus of the design engineering subtask of product development?