Visual Planning in Lean Product Development

Abstract: This Master Thesis aims to provide a broader understanding of what Visual Planning is and how it can be combined with other methods to enhance the efficiency in product development projects. The investigation and empirical part of the study has been conducted by qualitative research based on interviews, observations and informal conversations with people from two different Swedish companies. The results were used in a comparative case study conducted with the purpose to provide an overview about how Visual Planning is used and applied in Lean product development projects inside the Swedish industry. It has been found that Visual Planning constitutes a useful and favorable method for enhancing different aspects such as communication and knowledge transfer among the team members, and for avoiding task overlapping, problems and misunderstandings during the project development. However the method has some limitations which become significant barriers to the progress of projects. These hurdles would be eliminated with the use of software tools that would make the project development run in a smoother and more efficient way.