Resources on Set-Based Design

yellow woods
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
yet I could travel both.”
—Not Robert Frost

 

A reading list on set-based design (part of lean product development).

 Applied Fluid Technologies. Information on boat design.

 Baldwin, Carliss, and Kim Clark. Design Rules, Volume 1: The Power of Modularity. MIT Press, 2000. ISBN 0262024667. Modularity and platforms, from a somewhat economic perspective; not overly focused on software modularity. (No volume 2 yet:(

 Kennedy, Michael. Product Development for the Lean Enterprise: Why Toyota’s System is Four Times More Productive and How You Can Implement It. Oaklea Press, 2008. ISBN 1892538180. Business novel, touches on set-based approaches. 

 Kennedy, Michael and Kent Harmon. Ready, Set, Dominate: Implement Toyota’s Set-Based Learning for Developing Products, and Nobody Can Catch You. Oaklea Press, 2008. ISBN 1892538407. Second novel, also touches on set-based approaches. 

 Morgan, James, and Jeffrey Liker. The Toyota Product Development System. Productivity Press, 2006. ISBN 1-56327-282-2. Overview of lean product development, touches on set-based approaches. 

 Poppendieck, Mary and Tom. “Amplify Learning.” The importance of communicating constraints (rather than solutions) in set-based development. 

 Shook, John. Managing to Learn: Using the A3 Management Process to Solve Problems, Gain Agreement, Mentor, and Lead. Lean Enterprise Institute, 2008. ISBN 1934109207. A3 reports as the heart of lean management.

 Sobek II, Durward, Allen Ward, and Jeffrey Liker. “Toyota’s Principles of Set-Based Concurrent Engineering,” Sloan Management Review, Winter, 1998. Basic description and principles of the approach. 

 Wake, Bill. “Set-Based Concurrent Engineering.” Overview of several variations of set-based design in software. 

 Ward, Allen, Jeffrey Liker, John Cristiano, Durward Sobek II. “The Second Toyota Paradox: How Delaying Decisions Can Make Better Cars Faster,” Sloan Management Review, Spring, 1995. Looks at how set-based concurrent engineering lets Toyota do better than other carmakers. 

 Ward, Allen. Lean Product and Process Development. Lean Enterprise Institute, 2007. ISBN 978-1-934109-13-7. Description of knowledge waste, set-based concurrent engineering, and a different view of the PDCA cycle.

 

This is based on a list originally prepared for Agile 2009 by Bill Wake and Jean Tabaka.