Dantar P. Oosterwal

Dantar has a passion for Innovation and an enthusiasm for the improvement of Business Systems. At the intersection of these two interests, Dantar is a leader in the application of lean methods to product development resulting in dramatic improvements to new product development effectiveness and efficiency.

Out of frustration with the ineffectiveness of existing linear phase and gate development practices, Dantar pioneered the application of Lean principles to product development in western business. As the Director of Product Development for Harley-Davidson Motor Company this effort resulted in 50% reduction in development lead time and a 4 fold throughput improvement while maintaining a quality level of 98% repurchase intent. As the Vice President of Innovation for Sara Lee, Dantar once again applied these principles in leading the creation and implementation of Sara Lee's global Innovation process resulting in 35% improvement in R&D efficiency and 5 fold increase in revenue from new products.

After being asked many times to write a book by the people he worked with to explain what lean product development is and how to apply it, Dantar has written the book, 'The Lean Machine'. The Lean Machine tells the story of how Harley-Davidson applied lean principles to their product development system resulting in phenomenal improvement in time to market and new product delivery throughput even after they had been awarded the Outstanding Corporate Innovator award by the Product Development Management Association (PDMA). The book provides an easy to read and comprehendible story that allows readers to better understand how to improve product development. The Lean Machine provides readers with valuable resource with specifics on how to create change in their own organization.

The Lean Machine explains how Product Development improvement is achieved through proven, repeatable methods known as Knowledge-Based product development. Knowledge-Based product development creates reusable knowledge based on two foundational principles;

* Cadence & Flow

* Set-Based Design

Through stories and actual examples, The Lean Machine describes how Knowledge-Based development establishes the delivery cadence of new products necessary to deliver business revenue and profit growth. Experiential Learning Cycles in accordance to the defined business cadence institute cyclical development as learning cycles synchronize and optimize the development contribution of the entire organization. Orchestrated Pull Events establish Integration Points that maintain development focus and flow. Set-Based Design expands knowledge specifically seeking to determine the limits and trade-off aspects for designs. Collectively these elements of product development serve to reduce and eliminate False Positive Feasibility which is the primary cause of project failures, cost over runs, and delays in conventional linear stage-gate development systems.

The US council on Global Competitiveness identifies that Innovation is the primary source of value for US companies and American workers. Dantar is committed to promoting Knowledge-Based product development and openly sharing what he has learned to contribute to the advancement of companies' ability to innovate. More information is available at; http://theleanmachine.org/ .

Dantar holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Michigan and a Masters degree in Management from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).