Lean Product Development is an approach that followed Lean Manufacturing; however, it is completely different than the manufacturing approach.  The basic concepts of lean product development are: 

• platform based design
• platform reuse across different designs
• standards based design
• incrimental enhancement and lines of products

Platform based design means defining a basic platform and reusing the core design to produce different products.  Many good examples come from automotive industry in this area.   Auto manufacturers use a chassis as the basic platform and then reuse the platform over multiple model years, upgrading small features but keeping the basic platform for many years.  These are examples of platform based design.  In the computer industry, the platform most reused is an operating system; however, it could be extended to include the underlying hardware as well as additional application libraries.

Platform reuse across different designs is also seen in the automotive industry.  Infinity cars reuse more general chassis and panels from other Nissan products.  Volkswagen Jetta in North America reuses the Gulf chassis from Europe.  In the same way, by reusing the computer operating system and the underlying hardware from one project or product to the next, computer OEMs save time and money and reduce risk.  Lines of mobile phones are good examples of this.

Standards based design is also part of lean product development.  These standards can be set by broad group of organizations depending on the the application and often overlapping standards exist.  The main advantages of using standards in a general sense are: 

• Elimination of training and knowledge duplication
• Access to training materials and courses
• Access to trained and expert employees or consultants
• Known complete, safe and best practices to increase product reliability
• Interoperability of components using the standard
• Off the shelf components which are trivial to integrate
• Common tooling for multiple projects
• Improved project planning and product planning

The final aspect of lean product development is incremental enhancement of a line of products.   The platform is used to develop new technologies in a research and development framework in parallel with new product development.  As decision points are reached, and as new technologies are proven, these new technologies are injected into new products to enhance them.  Knowning that a platform exists that may be used for technology injection, and  also having a line of products so that research on new products can go on incrementally are both key to lean product development.