The role of product development is becoming increasingly important to overall business success. Therefore
it is necessary to establish fast, efficient and reliable product development processes. One approach to
reach this goal is the implementation of lean thinking in the development processes, e.g. the establishment
of a Lean Development System (LDS). LDS are based on the Toyota Product Development System, but
also include additional aspects. This paper describes and evaluates the basic approaches of lean
development in a literature review.