CAPABILITIES OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS OF A FIRM: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Abstract

Many researchers and industrial professionals recognize new product development (NPD) as a potential alternative for improving and sustaining competitive position in the market and made attempt to identify factors and variables that contribute to the capability of a firm in new product development. However, it is necessary to quantify these factors and variables in order to establish their relationships with the capability of NPD of a firm. Quantification of the factors is essential in order to achieve adequate control over the NPD activities. In this research work, a methodology is developed to quantify the factors and to establish empirical relationships of capability of NPD of a firm with its various main and support functions of new product development. In each of the selected function, the variables which contribute to NPD capability are identified by respondents/experts participated in a questionnaire survey. Out of the variables identified, three best variables are selected based on the importance assigned by the respondents. Utility functions and fuzzy analytical method are used for establishing the relationships between variables and the capabilities of the functions. The methodology is applied to an industrial product of a construction equipment-manufacturing firm that actively involves all the main functions and support activities as required for new product development. This methodology based on regression analysis may be used to monitor the product development process over a planning period on a continuous basis in a manufacturing firm.