Management and Organisational Factors in New Product Development (NPD) Success

Abstract

The desire to improve the performance of their new product development activities and process is firmly established within companies. This paper describes an attempt to produce an evaluation taxonomy and framework to enable comparisons to assess their NPD performance and the factors leading to success. This framework is based on a product's complexities (structural and functional) and related factors and commercial constraints. In particular, it looks at the management and organisational factors involved in NPD and how these may be enhanced to increase NPD success rates. These factors were investigated during a three-year Engineering and Physi cal Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded research programme. The outcome of this research programme is the Assessment Tool and Methodology (ATM) which evaluates a company's NPD activities and process performance. The various ways in which the ATM may be used are explained. Significant findings relating to success in product development are shown from the initial results comparing successful product devel opments from a variety of companies. Also described are the results of a survey of company based NPD performance improvement ap proaches and the related NPD performance measurement systems and metrics being used. The results from the use of the ATM with Japanese companies within Japan are also included as a comparison.