Abstract

Companies As companies strive to build a competitive advantage in a world obsessed with Digitalization, and they find that it's all about getting products out the door. Their top people must be able to transform the organization into a more Agile delivery model, where both speed and quality are achieved. That means a fundamental change in leadership culture, and executives need to get their hands dirty in the strategic building of an organization made for Product Development Flow.

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Naturally, large organizations that produce complex products have the biggest most significant challenges. Under the hood of these organizations, there are many systems to support the operational value streams. All tighs together in a product structure which is the backbone for making it all work in the supply chain, production, development, finance, sales, distribution, and aftermarket. Especially companies with long-lived consumer products have a substantial legacy of supporting systems.

The image shows a general setup the generic Value Creation Structure of any product-developing organization. The set-up is high level and in detail, there are many more Value Streams on different levels. To develop the end-user product all Development Value Streams must be connected in some waymodel summarizes Value Streams that would have many more layers and dependencies if described in more detail. When governing an organization that develops end-user products, all levels of the Value Creation Structure must be considered. The crucial connection between core Product Development Streams and Supporting Development Value Streams is mainly overlooked.

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To counter the market competition, the long tail of support systems needs to be in shape, which requires upgrades. A technical perspective, such as Life Cycle Management, security, and system integration, gives many reasons why existing systems must be invested in. Unfortunately, the structural view is a significantly more extensive scope than the technical one. It involves the thinking of a company's product offering and the tacit knowledge any organization has built up.

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