I am fortunate to have had a lengthy career of more than 30 years. I have held a variety of product development positions, and these experiences have influenced my thinking about how best to get things done. No doubt, my perspective will continue to evolve with further experiences. For now, at least, my experience has led me to think that processes are not the be-all-end-all. We should guard against dogma.
The automotive industry has a standard for conducting product development projects. Known as the advanced product quality planning (APQP) process, it was created by the Automotive Industry Action Group to provide a framework for designing a new product and the process that will make that product. It’s important to have such a framework, because the skills needed to design a new product are different from the skills required to design a manufacturing process. Ideally, there should be plenty of exchanges between the design and manufacturing groups.