Identifying bottlenecks is key to any project. If you are developing a bus and you have noone who can do a rollover analysis, and no funding for external research agencies so you have to put an intern on it who takes months to do a mediocre testing, your project can be infinitely delayed.
Also keep track of which departments are revising the WIP - a lot of work is often done in relative isolation and 90% ends in the drawers which with right planning of meetings with different departments can be kept on track. Often products are developed that, after a factory has looked at the drawings, have to be entirely revised. It is better to talk with them already at the start of the concepting phase.