The product development process issue has gradually become more critical to the companies' competitiveness. The reasons are mainly due to the increase in product variety and also the reduction of the life cycle. This work aims to evaluate the Value Stream Mapping contribution to the product development process. The research was conducted in a bakery equipment manufacturing company by means of a case study. For instance, the application of the Lean Value Stream Mapping technique identified many wastes in the holders' product development. The product development process particularities demanded some adaptations to the lean mapping technique. However, the Lean Thinking approach supported by the Value Stream Mapping technique, either the current or the future state, proved fully feasible to be applied in the product development process.
Product development process; Lean thinking; Lean development; Value flow mapping; Process mapping