Winning by Design is a new book that provides an in-depth view of the Simpler Design System (SDS) and how it can be used to improve quality, reduce cost and expedite lead time during the new product development (NPD) cycle.

The SDS was launched in 2010 and is a service that assists organ- isations with the NPD process by applying lean management principles to save time and money in getting high-quality products to market across the manufacturing, high-tech, medical-device and pharmaceuticals industries.

Organisations are continuously competing to release innovative products and services and often the pressure of releasing them on time causes a bottle- necked development process, resulting in disappointing earnings and disappointed customers, explain Winning by Design co-authors Elekta VP of research and development at the oncology systems department Rob Westrick and enterprise transformation company Simpler VP Chris Cooper.

The book outlines how the SDS can be applied to the two mental phases of the NPD process – exploration and execution – to transform performance and significantly reduce the end-to-end timeline, enhance quality, improve morale and make cost performance more predictable.

Part A of the book is aimed at leaders who wish to create the visions to initiate change and part B is aimed at those on the frontlines, such as engineers, who seek improvement through a lean philosophy and need a toolbox of techniques to implement their projects.

“The benefits of implementing the information in the book includes a 50% reduction in project- time duration, a 25% reduction in resources required and a 50% reduction in design defects,” says Cooper.

Westrick says the book will build morale, improve quality and timeliness and reduce costs by showing that efforts are not wasted and that more mistakes happen when things are rushed. Therefore, allowing for early learning in a project will improve the quality of products and the morale of employees.

“The principles set out in the book are intuitive to engineers, and the book is intended to give businesspeople and engineers a common language in which to communicate and understand their different worlds,” explains Westrick.