Where the weeks actually go in a delayed launch

We timed forty new product introduction programs gate by gate. The median program lost eleven weeks between design freeze and tooling start, and almost all of it sat in two places: waiting for a decision the gate structure technically allowed, and rework caused by suppliers who saw the design too late.

Neither fix is exotic. Named gate criteria and suppliers in the room at design review two recovered most of the time in every program that tried them.