Identifying and Defining Knowledge-work Waste in Product Development: A Case Study on Lean Maturity Assessment

Product development (PD) involves highly multi-disciplinary tasks that need to be accomplished in project mode. PD projects mainly involve knowledge work; due to the inherent nature of knowledge work, it is a a challenging task to use formal Lean concepts and definitions in the PD context. This manuscript first identifies and defines waste related to knowledge work in the PD context in general. Then, it proposes a methodology for assessing the status of PD maturity in relation to Lean concepts. A case study was carried out in an Oil & Gas (O& G) organization providing engineering services [i.e. an engineering contractor (EC)] that involves PD activities. The knowledge work related critical waste categories were identified using the suggested methodology as presented.