Optimizing Innovation with the Lean and Digitize Innovation Process

Abstract

Actionable knowledge to improve innovation and bring value to the customers and organizations is essential in today's economy. In the past, there have attempts to apply Lean Thinking and Six Sigma to the innovation processes, with mixed results. The aim of this article is discuss how to improve innovation processes using the Lean and Digitize Innovation process, which integrates digitization into the Lean Six Sigma method. Through the redesign of innovation processes and their automation, the process aims to add value to customers, improve effectiveness, eliminate waste, minimize operating costs, and reduce time-to-market. This new method is characterized by seven stages, or ``the 7 Ds{''} (define, discover, design, develop, digitize, deploy, and diffusion), with 29 steps. This article describes the Lean and Digitize Innovation process and presents cases where the approach has been successful in helping innovation processes from start to end: from the definition of the value for the customers up to the implementation of a prototype and engineering of the delivery processes.