The product design and manufacturing stages of production are essential to a companies success. The effectiveness and efficiency of each stage must be strategically aligned to the organizations goals and objectives. Launching a new product is a costly undertaking. Often, a large capital investment is sunk into the research and development phase before the product is bought to market. Products typically move through stages before they finally hit the market. Most products don’t ever see the light of day. Lean product development is a philosophy adopted by many organizations to keep their development costs under control. Without a rigid development structure, companies would be burdened with cost control problems.