Definition
A method that uses lean plus Six Sigma to redesign an existing product so it meets three criteria at once — it sells well, it is profitable, and it is easy to manufacture; choices made at the design stage determine downstream quality and cost (the textbook ratio is 1:10:100:1000).
In detail
Breakthrough Product Development (BPD) is a method that uses lean plus Six Sigma to redesign an existing product so it meets three criteria at once: it sells well, it is profitable, and it is easy to manufacture. It emphasizes that quality and cost are largely locked in at the design stage (the textbook ratio is 1:10:100:1000 — the later a problem is found, the more it costs to fix), and it connects directly with idea generation and customer-centered product definition rather than standing apart from them. Compared to conventional product development, it is a systematic redesign of an existing product rather than conceiving a new concept from scratch. Its outputs include a redesigned product plan, a validated prototype, and quantified cost/quality results.
Example in practice
An existing product had thin margins and a complicated manufacturing process, so the team launched a BPD project: they broke the product into modules and checked each one against all three criteria — sells well, profitable, easy to manufacture — cutting hard-to-manufacture, high-cost module designs at the design stage instead of fixing them after mass production. The new design cut cost by 20% and assembly steps by a third, and went into mass production after validation.