Abstract
The fuzzy front-end plays a most crucial part in new product development (NPD), leading to the success of product development and product launch in the market. This study proposes a novel method, TTRI_MP, by combining Crawford and Di Benedetto’s model and Cooper’s model, to strengthen the management of the fuzzy front-end. The proposed method comprises four stages: market exploration and technology forecasting, idea generation and segmentation, portfolio analysis and technology roadmapping (TRM). In the first stage, SWOT was utilized to identify the key strategic areas, and the technology readiness level (TRL) was adopted to position the level of developed technologies. In the second stage, the business concepts were required to go through the viability test and customers, collaborators, competitors and company (4C). In the third stage, the Strategic Position Analysis (SPAN) and Financial Analysis (FAN) developed by IBM were employed in the portfolio analysis to screen out potential NPD projects. In the last stage, the selected NPD projects were linked with their functions and technologies in the TRM chart. The method was successfully implemented by a research team working on a flexible fabric supercapacitor at the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI).
Highlights
It is generally recognized that the new product development (NPD) process can be divided into three phases: fuzzy front-end (FFE) or project planning, product development and commercialization
An ITP method, which stands for Integrated (I) Technology Roadmapping (T) Portfolio Management (P), was developed, which comprises 13 activities starting from technology roadmapping (TRM) activities, followed by the ‘proposition of NPD projects’ and ending with project portfolio management (PPM) activities
The research methodology we propose, the TTRI_MP method, which stands for Market Planning at the Taiwan Textile Research Institute, is a complementary method to the ITP method developed by Oliveira and Rozenfeld [2] in the front-end phase to strengthen the decision making control and the management of technology product development and commercialization
Summary
It is generally recognized that the NPD process can be divided into three phases: fuzzy front-end (FFE) or project planning, product development and commercialization. Regardless of Crawford and Di Bendedetto’s model or Cooper’s stage-gate system, fuzzy front-end no doubt is a vital process that plays a crucial part in the model that contributes the most to a much higher success rate in the development and product launch. A serious missing link or gap exists between R&D outcomes and the transfer of technology applied to the product development and commercialization in the industries It is the objective of this study to combine the advantages of three activities addressed in Crawford and Di Bendedetto’s model and the portfolio analysis addressed in Cooper’s stage-gate system, to propose a four-stage method, TTRI_MP method: market exploration and technology forecasting, idea generation and segmentation, portfolio analysis and technology roadmapping in the fuzzy front-end process. Researchers have endeavored to investigate constructing supercapacitors using carbon-based materials, such as carbon nanotubes [9], activated carbon [10], carbon fibers and graphene [13]
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