A new book describes how Goodyear succeeded to speed its development of innovative new products thanks to the ‘Lean’ methodology and to not only save time, but also increase the efficiency,

In his book entitled ‘Lean-Driven Innovation – Powering product development at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber company, written by Luxembourg native Norbert Majerus, product development engineer at Goodyear since 1979, and ‘Lean’ champion, describes how the company transformed its product development process, slashing cycle time by more than 70 percent while keeping a 90% on-time delivery.

Norbert Majerus, highlights what worked well for the company but also addresses the downfalls and frustrations. In telling the Goodyear lean research and development story, he spells out the key lean principles that work well in the company’s innovation creation environment and describes lean tools that helped along the way. Majerus says this approach allows readers in many different industries to understand how to apply lean to their own innovation processes.

“In today’s world, not only must a company’s technology be the best to compete, but the processes that bring technology to market must also be the best. Many companies are unprepared for innovation competitiveness, and Goodyear used to be such a company,” said Majerus.

“Today, because of our decade-long lean R&D initiative, we get new products to market when and how the market wants them, and new products account for a significant part of Goodyear’s sales,” he added. 

“At Goodyear we have reached a point where our lean product development initiative has become the way that we work. Lean has been instrumental to us in establishing an agile innovation culture that helps us keep ahead of market changes and the competition.” said Joe Zekoski, senior vice president and chief technical officer.

The book was recently honored by the  Shingo Institute  with the internationally recognized ‘Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award’.