Method For New Product Development Research Articles

Exploring mobility and transportation technology futures for people with ambulatory disabilities: A science fiction prototype

Although a number of studies have explored science fiction prototyping as a method for new product development, no study has ever used the method to examine the mobility and transportation technology needs of people with disabilities. The current research created a science fiction prototype, based on expert opinion expressed during an imagination workshop, which the authors then presented to a sample of people with ambulatory disabilities. Through a conjoint analysis, the sample members delineated the elements of the prototype they regarded as most important. The participants considered personal mobility assistive technology (either an automated wheelchair or an exoskeleton) the most important, followed by personal automation (autonomous [driverless] vehicle or personal robot) and thirdly by personal assistance technologies (real-time response versus augmented metaverse planning systems). Outputs to the conjoint analysis were clustered and three categories of individual emerged (i) more innovatively minded people who occupied the first cluster and preferred an exoskeleton, a personal robot and a subscription to the metaverse, (ii) people who appeared to be less technologically inclined and preferred an automated wheelchair, an autonomous vehicle and a subscription to a real-time assistive system, and (iii) a group with members favouring an AV but with few other predilections.

The interval grey QFD method for new product development: Integrate with LDA topic model to analyze online reviews

As the development of the consuming environment, the way consumers give feedback on product experience changes from passive feedback to active reviews, and the development of artificial intelligence technology brings new possibilities for companies to obtain information on Customer Requirements (CRs) and Market Competition Information (CIs) needed for new product development. In the previous New Product Development (NPD) process, CRs and CIs often need to be corrected through market surveys and questionnaires. To acquire the corrected data from experienced experts without user and designer cognitive bias is very laborious and more subjective. Under the situation of key information shortage for business developers and NPD efficiency & accuracy cannot be guaranteed, online reviews provided a good source for data analysis to enhance the market competition. This study integrates Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), Apriori algorithm, interval grey number, and Quality Function Deployment(QFD) techniques to propose the Latent Dirichlet Allocation-Interval Grey Number Quality Function Deployment (LDA-IGQFD) method, which can use text mining and analysis methods to obtain objective information about CRs and CIs contained in users’ online reviews, transformed them into data and input into Interval Grey Number Quality Function Deployment (IGQFD) to drive product development. LDA-IGQFD can help product developers identify CRs and Engineering Characteristics (ECs) important information and provide suggestions for product development. The aim of the research process under the LDA-IGQFD method is explained with the design of a dishwasher as an example, and the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed method is scientifically verified.

Identifying and ranking risks using combined FMEA-TOPSIS method for new product development in the dairy industry and offering mitigation strategies: case study of Ramak Company

Food industry as one of the most important and influential industries plays an important role in the health and well-being of the community. It is also important for the country’s economy, export, and inter-state relations. As the industry expands and competition becomes tougher, the development of new products that can compete in this competitive market has become a major concern for manufacturers but the production of new products is always associated with uncertainties and risks, the management of which is the core of the new product development process and plays an important role in the success of industries. Risks occur in different shapes at every stage of the new product development process from design to consumption. In this study, the new product development process in a dairy company is investigated. A quantitative approach is proposed to identify and rank the risks affecting this process using the combined Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. Shannon entropy method is also used to weight the criteria in the TOPSIS method. Identified risks by considering expert’s opinion were scored from 0 to 10 regarding FMEA method factors (Severity, Occurrence, Detective), then by utilizing Shannon entropy method in TOPSIS each risk was weighted and ranked. 14 risks are first identified and then ranked based on 30 experts opinions from different parts of the company such as marketing, accounting, engineering, staff, management etc. and prior studies. The results show that ’Mismatching product Specifications with costumer needs and tastes’ and ’The emergence of a new rival’ are the most important risk factors for new product development. Risk reduction strategies based on the standard of project management, firm strengths and weaknesses and expert opinions on all risk factors are provided. At the end, some recommendations are provided to the managers of the company. The proposed approach is applied in Ramak Company and the results are approved by experts, more importantly, they are agree that the proposed approach can be used to identify, evaluate and present risk reduction strategies in the food industry.

Integrating Kano Model, AHP, and QFD Methods for New Product Development Based on Text Mining, Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets, and Customers Satisfaction

Online reviews are crucial to any online business that wants to increase sales on the Internet. Customer reviews have information about product attributes, customer requirements (CRs), and shopping experience; mining reviews provide the direction of decision-making for new product development and design (NPDD). Besides, the information of customer preference has vagueness and uncertainty, and the accuracy of decision-making information directly affects the success of NPDD. This paper proposed a methodology that integrates the Kano model (KM), analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and quality function deployment (QFD) methods with intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS) to solve decision-making problems in NPDD. By the new method, the web crawler technology was first applied to e-commerce web sites to collect raw data, and the representative CRs were extracted through combining LDA model with Apriori algorithm. Second, the intuitionistic fuzzy Kano model (IFKM) is proposed to evaluate adjustment coefficient of CRs and Kano categories via customer preference membership functions. Thirdly, overall weights which contained emotional needs (ENs) and functional needs (FNs) are obtained via intuitionistic fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (IFAHP); thus, the adjusted weights are calculated from IFKM and IFAHP. Next, the intuitionistic fuzzy quality function deployment (IFQFD) is proposed to acquire engineering characteristics (ECs) of weights through combining competition benchmarks and based on technical benchmarks to make goals for a company’s NPDD. Finally, the method was applied to study vertical-configured air conditioner (VAC) as an example. The results showed that the application of text mining and IFS to improve CS is both reliable and scientific.

Trends of Using Sensory Evaluation in New Product Development in the Food Industry in Countries That Belong to the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme.

Sensory evaluation plays an important role in New Product Development (NPD) in food industry. In the present study, the current trends of using sensory evaluation in NPD in the food industry in countries that belong to EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) were identified. The research was conducted in the first quarter of 2020. Computer assisted self-interviewing (CASI) technique for survey data collection was used. The sample included 122 respondents representing RIS countries that are the EU Member States and European Horizon 2020 Associated Countries that are classified as modest and moderate innovators according to European Innovation Scoreboard. The analysis presented in the paper allowed to describe the methods of sensory evaluation that can be used to support NPD in the food industry, identify the trends of using sensory evaluation in NPD in the food industry companies in RIS countries. The research results showed that almost 70% of companies apply sensory evaluation methods in NPD. The larger the company, the more often the methods of sensory evaluation are used in NPDs. Almost 60% of companies employing 51–100, 101–1000 and more than 5000 people, respectively declare the use of expert (analytical) test. However, regardless of size, most companies prefer consumer (affective) test to expert tests. Based on the results, it seems that the potential of usage sensory evaluation methods is not yet fully exploited in the food industry.

Resource sharing method of new product development in the digital market based on blockchain

In order to overcome the problems of long query time and low efficiency in the process of new product development resource sharing in digital market, this paper proposes a new resource sharing method for new product development in digital market based on blockchain. Based on the blockchain technology, this method constructs the knowledge sharing system of new product development in digital market. This paper analyses the faults existing in the system shared data, and introduces the contents of these faults in the technical part into ontology, constructs the knowledge sharing model, promotes the resource sharing mechanism of new product development, and completes the resource integration and sharing of new product development according to the ontology knowledge base. The experimental results show that the query time is controlled within 80 s, and the time efficiency is higher.

Fractal – Matrix Method for New Product Development

Fractal – Matrix Method for New Product Development

An Overview of Current Challenges in New Food Product Development

New product development (NPD) is essential for business success and growth. High- to medium-technology manufacturing sectors have introduced standard models. The adaptation of these systematic NPD procedures supported by appropriate decision support tools has provided significant benefits in production cost, product quality and supply chain availability. However, the challenges involved in NPD of food are rapidly increasing due to consumer demand for organic and healthy diets, in particular, more nutritious low-calorie food, and preference for customised and personalised food products. This has resulted in a proliferation of new varieties, types and shapes of food products that are constantly introduced. Most of these new products are developed based on company-specific ad hoc NPD procedures, within small to medium enterprises that form the biggest proportion of food producers in most developed countries. This highlights a need for further research into novel NPD methods and tools in the food sector. This communication provides an overview of the NPD processes, analyses their strengths and shortcomings and outlines critical missing capabilities for food manufacturers in specific.

Design for energy efficiency in early stages: A top-down method for new product development

Designfor energy efficiency (DfEE) is highly valued in improving the energy efficiency during product use and the decisions with a significant impact on the product’s energy-efficiency performance are made during early design stages. The product’s design features determined in early design stages are hierarchical in nature and the design process for new products is generally top-down. However, current DfEE methods tend to firstly improve the design features on the bottom level and then the higher level till the energy-efficiency target is achieved. The contradiction between the top-down design process and the bottom-up energy-efficiency improvement severely limits the innovation in new product design and hinders the emergence of highly energy-efficient products. In addition, the energy-efficiency improvement is divergent and can generate a large number of solutions, but the design process needs to be convergent and arrives at a few or a single best solution. This paper proposes a top-down DfEE method called three-step cyclic design method for new product development in early design stages. It is based on a spiral design process and a three-layer framework of DfEE activities. The former supports a top-down approach for energy-efficiency improvement, and the latter ensures a convergent DfEE process. The implementation of this method is detailed through a case study of a wind turbine.

Customer Need Identification Methods in New Product Development: What Works “Best”?

Although new product development is associated with high failure rates, it is still the most natural measure for firms to grow and by that expand their market position. Therefore, firms need to optimally align product functions to the needs of their target customer. By conducting an online survey with 179 participants, this paper identifies the most commonly applied need identification techniques. We can show that analyzing internal data and external reports today is the most commonly used method, at least in the German-speaking world. Still, interacting with customers via different approaches is perceived as the most beneficial approach, at the same time being very resource-demanding. In contrast to most scientific studies analyzing this topic, we furthermore identify reasons for refusing certain methods, e.g. because of lack of knowledge and resources or severe resistance within the organizations. Additionally, we derive academic and practical information from the input of the survey data for an improved application in the future.

Application of Axiomatic Design for Agile Product Development

Agile, and iterative, development methods for new product development are gaining in popularity under product engineers; where it initially was just applied for software development, now larger adoption takes place for product development in general. The design rules of agile development are somewhat conflicting with the guidelines of Axiomatic Design. In this paper, it is investigated why this is the case, what can be done about it, and how can the strengths of agile development be combined with Axiomatic Design to optimise methods for product design. It is shown that the methods are indeed advising on different and conflicting strategies, however, by attenuating the agile design rules in the early stage of design, and doing the same for AD in the later stage of design, best of both worlds can be combined.

Lean Product Development: Nothing New Under the Sun?

AbstractThe concept of lean product development has attracted the attention of many scholars since its inception in the 1990s derived from practices at Toyota Motor Company. Key to this approach to new product development (NPD) are a few methods derived from lean production as well as longer established practices such as concurrent engineering. This makes one wonder whether lean product development is a new practice, a new method or an encapsulation of already existing methods at the time; this quest for the roots and tenets of lean product development, also in comparison with other methods for NPD, is the focus of this paper. This journey takes this propositional paper not only to the roots of lean product development and the context of its era of conception, but also to what this concept adds to other extant methods for NPD. In particular, this comparison draws out that other methods are trying to achieve the same objectives: the creation of products and services with value to the customer, the reduction of time‐to‐market and the efficient use of resources. This inference implies that managers of new product (and service) development can choose from a wider pallet of methods and approaches to enhance the performance of R&D and to connect better to manufacturing (including supply chains). Inevitably, this has implications for research on (lean) product and service development; hence, this paper sets out a research agenda based on the deliberations and gaps that have been uncovered in the discourse.

The effect of depending The Product Development technical methods on creating new product A study on the Mobile services: The Second generation GSM and The third 3G.

One of the most important methods in new product development is the Technical one, It works basically to insert new product to the market or create some other one never seen before, This method has some collateral effects on the consumption way the costumer get used on. This product may also be focused on some categories of customers, and less responsive to the needs comparing to another specialized products, This technical developed product may also let the costumer feel that he pays on unused features.

Method Application in New Product Development and the Impact on Product Success

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the use of methods in new product development and their impact on product success. Based on a large sample totaling 410 development projects, we show which methods are used with the greatest frequency. For each method, we also highlight the differences in application between particularly successful and unsuccessful product development projects. Additionally, we identify methods whose adoption correlates strongly with the success of the developed product. Further, we examine which combinations of methods promise to deliver the most successful outcomes, thus showing how the success rates for new products can be improved systematically.

Approaching lean product development using system dynamics: investigating front-load effects

Competing with successful products has become perplexing with several uncertainties and transmutes from time to time as customers’ expectations are dynamic. That is why manufacturing firms exhaustively strive to look for a better competitive frontier using well-established and innovative product development (PD) processes. In this paper, we would like to answer three research questions: (i) What would be the effects of front-loading in PD? (ii) Can we improve our PD process endlessly? (iii) When is the critical time that the firm should take remedial action for improvements? As a contribution to the vast numbers of improvement methods in new product development (NPD), this paper investigates the effects of front-loading using set-based concurrent engineering (SBCE) on cost and lead time. Models are developed and treated using a system dynamics (SD) approach. We assign a hypothetical upfront investment for SBCE and compare its effects on total cost and lead time of the development process. From the research, it is found that the total cost of PD is reduced almost by half—although the front loading is higher in order to encompass multiple design alternatives. The total product lead time is reduced by almost 20 %. The model reveals the critical time for improvement of the PD process. We use SD tool (e.g., STELLA) for simulation and visualization of the complex PD model, using SBCE as one of several strategies to front-load activities in the NPD process.

METHOD APPLICATION IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND THE IMPACT ON CROSS-FUNCTIONAL COLLABORATION AND NEW PRODUCT SUCCESS

In recent years, scholars have devoted increasing attention to the use of methods in new product development. For the first time, we examine particularly the relationship between method application, cross-functional collaboration in new product development and new product success. The analysis of more than 400 new product development projects from 201 different companies shows that applying methods in new product development leads directly to the superior financial performance of the developed product (by reducing product costs, for example) and also leads indirectly to superior cross-functional collaboration during the development project. Both effects are analysed, showing how firms can actively improve on what in some cases are very high failure rates in the development of new products.

Key determinants of the successful adoption of new product development methods

PurposeIn recent years, scholars have devoted increasing attention to the use of methods in new product development. Although their positive impact on product success has been confirmed by a series of studies, little research has so far been conducted into the determinants of the successful method application. The purpose of this paper is to analyze two key determinants for the successful use of methods.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a structural equation modeling approach and analyzes the subject based on a large empirical sample of 410 product development projects.FindingsThe way the new product development process is formalized and the extent of top management support have a significant influence on the successful application of methods. Both factors lead to the use of more methods overall and drive the more thorough and intensive deployment of the specific methods used.Practical implicationsThe paper shows how firms that are seeking a more methodical approach to new product development can consciously create the right determinants for the successful adoption of methods and by doing that can increase the success rate of their new product development activities.Originality/valueThis research adds to the literature on success factors of new product development in two distinct ways. First, the paper investigates the subject at the level of specific product development projects, based on a large empirical sample and using a structural equation modeling approach, for the first time. Second, the methods investigated were chosen in a systematic, multi step process in which the methods used by several functions involved in new product development were taken into account.

Lead Users and Non-Lead Users: Do Their Preferences Really Differ in Product Design?

Nowadays, the lead user method (von Hippel, 1986; Luthje et al., 2005) and conjoint analysis (Green and Srinivasan, 1990) are widely used methods for new product development. Both methods collect and analyze customers' preferences and use them for (optimal) product design. However, whereas the lead user method primarily is intended to create breakthrough innovations (see von Hippel et al., 2001), conjoint analysis is more capable for incremental innovations (Baier and Brusch, 2009). The main objective of this paper is to measure if lead user preferences differ to non-lead user preferences by extending traditional conjoint analysis with a lead user identification technique and whether this fact can be used in (new) product design for generating breakthrough innovations. This combined procedure is compared to traditional conjoint analysis. The well-known field of mountain biking is used as the empirical setting. The study showed thirty new improvements and led indeed to different preferred attribute-levels.

Optimizing product architecture for complex design

Determining product architecture is a key activity in new product development. This article presents a quantifying and planning method for new product development based on an algebraic matrix technique. A fuzzy design structure matrix that combines fuzzy set theory and the design structure matrix is established. The proposed fuzzy design structure matrix is a Boolean matrix that can quantify the dependency strength between product components and optimize product architecture. Partitioning and tearing algorithms are utilized to restructure a fuzzy design structure matrix, allowing the interdependent relationships within the product components in the new product development process to be obtained. A systematic clustering method that is efficient and yet flexible is developed for new product development from an informational structure perspective. The fuzzy design structure matrix can enhance the performance of new product development management by reducing the costs, offering product variety, decreasing the number of component iterations, and reducing the product development time. A case study is employed to illustrate the proposed method.

A Manager's Perspective on Virtual Customer Integration for New Product Development

Despite the high potential of virtual customer integration (VCI) methods for new product development (NPD) mentioned in the literature, practical use is still limited. This paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of managers’ perspectives on VCI and their intentions to use these methods for NPD. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) served as basis for developing a research model, which considers managers’ cognition, attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control as important factors affecting their intention to apply VCI. Because more recent literature has expressed doubts about the explanatory potential of the rather simple TPB model, a more complex alternative model was proposed for comparison. The alternative model included the market orientation of the company, the hierarchical position of the innovation manager as well as the manager's level of innovativeness as additional explanatory variables. An empirical online study was conducted in the field of consumer goods and services. Based on a sample of 216 German‐speaking innovation managers, the results show that the model derived from the TPB explains 68% of the variance in the managers’ intention to apply VCI compared with 69% of variance explained by the model containing additional explanatory variables. An extension of the model does not significantly improve its explanatory power. Managers show high interest in virtually integrating customers in NPD processes. Managers consider identification of future customer needs, a broader decision basis, increased efficiency in gathering and use of customer information, and increased customer retention as major advantages of VCI. Disadvantages considered by managers in making their overall judgment are the lack of secrecy and only incremental innovations. The perceived potential contribution of VCI to NPD, the assessment of its general acceptance within the company, and the perceived ability of innovation managers to successfully implement VCI mainly influence the adoption decision. Managers’ attitudes toward VCI have no significant influence on their intention to use VCI. The results suggest that strong promotion of VCI through senior management would enforce the positive effect of subjective norms on applying VCI. Measures such as including VCI on innovation managers’ personal scorecard, trainings offered, and cross‐functional meetings could help speed up VCI in NPD processes by increasing innovation managers’ perceived behavioral control toward VCI.