Efficient Product Development Research Articles

Best new product development and management practices in the Korean high-tech industry

This paper investigates critical factors affecting the likelihood of new product success and effective new product development (NPD) models for Korean high-tech firms. Empirical results suggest that successful projects differ from unsuccessful projects in project environment, skills and resources, project leadership, strategic fit, efficient NPD process, and effective product-positioning strategies. This study confirmed that efficient and effective new product development and management were important determinants of high-tech firms' competitive advantage. Furthermore, the findings of this study raised questions about some commonly held beliefs when compared with Western studies focusing on high-tech industries.

5402 IHジャー炊飯器の内釜開発(S72 CAE・最適化と設計,S72 CAE・最適化と設計)

Reliability technology has been developed for the IH carbon-jar rice cooker which cooks plump, tasty rice like a expert. Because this rice cooker's inner jar features a new carbon sintered material for superior thermal conductivity, the problem of ensuring the carbon jar's reliability has been an important issue. From the coupled thermoelastic analysis results, it was possible to estimate the thermal distribution at the carbon jar during rice cooking operations, and to evaluate in advance the stress produced. Moreover, static bending test and fatigue strength tests were performed to determine the variations of material characteristics variations. These tests indicated that the product offers an acceptable long-term reliability (99.9% or higher). Finally, the reliability was verified by actual product temperature measurements and testing under accelerated operating conditions, which contributes to efficient product development.

Productivity drivers in machine and metal product manufacturing

This study looks at the causes of labour productivity improvement in the Finnish machine and metal product manufacturing industry. Labour productivity, as measured in this paper, is closely associated with profitability. The analysis comprises 28 selected cases and is based on data collected using a questionnaire and interviews. We apply statistical analysis methods to filter out the most important explicatory factors. The purpose of the case descriptions is to illuminate the diverse management actions and problems behind these factors. Product development efforts, supplier relations and efficiency of production processes seem to be the most important causes for improvement. Productivity usually improves during growth periods but uncontrolled rapid growth creates many problems to small- and medium-sized firms. Developing system suppliers are in an especially challenging position. During the study period, companies faced significant yearly fluctuations in volume, and therefore resource flexibility is imperative to maintain productivity.

Molecularly Imprinted Polymers—Potential and Challenges in Analytical Chemistry

AbstractFor Abstract see ChemInform Abstract in Full Text.

The Development of Project Risk Metrics for Robust Concurrent Product Development (CPD) across the Supply Chain

Many companies report that they can attain a competitive product development advantage from strategic relationships with key suppliers, but even the successful relationships are not without their challenges. Industry has expressed a need for robust concurrent product development (CPD) practices to include supplier issues. Unfortunately, most of the practices currently available provide little to quantitatively analyze the product development process and to identify risk as a direct result of supplier interactions. This study develops metrics that characterize product development project risk that results from supplier interactions by using the concepts of degree of design customization (DoDC) and coupling ratio (CR). A correlation analysis based on HP LaserJet development projects demonstrates that the proposed metrics for DoDC and CR are good indicators of the likelihood of product development efficiency. Furthermore, there was enough evidence to use the interaction term, the CR multiplied by the DoDC, as a risk index. An important implication of using the coupling assessment as part of the project risk assessment is that the same process can address both project and product risks.

Virtual engineering: Methods and tools

This paper presents an overview of actual approaches in virtual engineering, mainly from the design point of view. The evolution of the market has necessitated the reduction of time-to-market, essentially because the product life cycle is shorter, but also because it is very important to proceed more rapidly from an initial conception to a mass production object. As a result of newly evolved software DOI: environments, knowledge-based systems, and product data management, processes for integrated design and manufacturing for new products have emerged. Owing to this evolution of virtual engineering technologies, it has become possible today to validate parts representative of mass production within a very short time. This paper provides an overview of the actual methods and tools in all the components that affect the speed and efficiency of product development, in particular all the possibilities available to the designer, from the earliest stages of a product's life cycle.

The Moderating Effect of Environmental Uncertainty on New Product Development and Time Efficiency*

This empirical study examines the influence of environmental uncertainty on industrial product innovation. The present study addresses what is believed to be a shortcoming in the new product development literature and explores potential effects of environmental uncertainty on the development process, project organization, and on project timeliness with a sample of development projects in two countries, Canada and Australia. When looking at the combined sample of 182 completed projects, this study finds that the perceived market‐related project environment has a direct and positive impact on time efficiency. Further, this research finds that a higher degree of technological uncertainty moderates the relationship between development process, project organization and time efficiency. Consequently, innovating companies may benefit by adapting some of their development approaches to different environmental conditions and to varying degrees of uncertainty. However, when examining country‐specific effects, the results change quite significantly. In particular, the findings indicate that environmental uncertainty in the Canadian sample neither directly impacts time efficiency, nor does it have any moderating effect. Instead, technical proficiency in the development process, project team organization, and process compression appear to be viable strategies to increase time‐efficient development. In contrast, the results of the Australian study suggest that perceived market and technological uncertainty impact time efficiency. In particular, under conditions of technological unpredictability, project team organization increases time efficiency, whereas process compression appears to decrease time‐efficient product development. However, process compression seems to be a viable strategy in environments characterized by lower technological uncertainty. The results also point to the importance of disaggregating data when studying product development processes across countries.

A decision support system for product design in concurrent engineering

Compared with the traditional sequential design method, concurrent engineering is a systematic approach to integrate concurrent design of products and their related processes. One of the key factors to successfully implement concurrent engineering is information technology. In order to design a product and its manufacturing process simultaneously, information on product features, manufacturing requirements, and customer demands must be processed while the design is concurrently going on. There is an increased understanding of the importance of the correct decisions being made at the conceptual design and development stages that involve many complex evaluation and decision-making tasks. In order to promote the efficiency in concurrent product development, appropriate evaluation and decision tools need to be provided. In this paper, the characteristics of fuzzy, multi-stage evaluation and decision making in concurrent product development process are analyzed and a decision support system for product design in concurrent engineering is presented. An example is given to illustrate the application of the system.

The New Fundamentals Of Marketing

This paper identifies and discusses topics discussed at the 2002 Annual Marketing Conference believed by the author to be most relevant to challenges and opportunities faced by marketers in Nigeria. Topics addressed include: marketing and brand metrics, launching of a new brand, the evolving role of the research function, internal marketing, efficient and effective new product development, creation of customer loyalty and/or commitment, customer intelligence, and positioning. On each of the above topics, the author addresses three specific issues: 1) What did marketers know and/or believe about this topic prior to the Conference Board presentation; 2) What new knowledge and/or insights were presented by the speaker(s); and 3) What additional knowledge and/or insights was the author able to locate when he returned home, after the conference. LBS Management Review Vol.8(1) 2003: 28-55

Molecularly imprinted polymers—potential and challenges in analytical chemistry

Among the variety of biomimetic recognition schemes utilizing supramolecular approaches molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have proven their potential as synthetic receptors in numerous applications ranging from liquid chromatography to assays and sensor technology. Their inherent advantages compared to biochemical/biological recognition systems include robustness, storage endurance and lower costs. However, until recently only few contributions throughout the relevant literature describe quantitative analytical applications of MIPs for practically relevant analyte molecules and real-world samples. Increased motivation to thoroughly evaluate the true potential of MIP technology is clearly attributed to the demands of modern analytical chemistry, which include enhanced sensitivity, selectivity and applicability of molecular recognition building blocks at decreasing costs. In particular, the areas of environmental monitoring, food and beverage analysis and industrial process surveillance require analytical tools capable of discriminating chemicals with high molecular specificity considering increasing numbers of complex environmental contaminants, pollution of raw products and rigorous quality control requested by legislation and consumer protection. Furthermore, efficient product improvement and development of new products requires precise qualitative and quantitative analytical methods. Finally, environmental, food and process safety control issues favor the application of on-line in situ analytical methods with high molecular selectivity. While biorecognition schemes frequently suffer from degrading bioactivity and long-term stability when applied in real-world sample environments, MIPs serving as synthetic antibodies have successfully been applied as stationary phase separation matrix (e.g. HPLC and SPE), recognition component in bioassays (e.g. ELISA) or biomimetic recognition layer in chemical sensor systems. Examples such as MIP-based selective analysis of flavones/flavonoids in wine, the determination of mycotoxins in beverages and analysis of organic contaminants in environment samples will elucidate the perspectives of this technology and will be contrasted with the challenges of rational MIP design providing control on binding site density, receptor capacity and selectivity.

Biomarkers of cancer risk and therapeutic benefit: new technologies, new opportunities, and some challenges.

The biotechnology revolution offers unprecedented opportunities for identification of mechanistically-based biomarkers that report and predict cancer and other pathologies. The combination of genomic technologies with a knowledge of gene sequence and sequence conservation has made available markers that facilitate the correlation of genetic variation with biological outcomes, and "-omic" technologies allow efficient biochemical characterization of functional pathways--providing new markers of the susceptibility of individuals to cancer development, and of tumor susceptibility to specific therapies. New therapeutic agents targeted to individuals with specific genetic or biochemical characteristics already exist. The powerful -omic technologies allow efficient monitoring of gene transcripts, proteins, and intermediary metabolites, making it possible to monitor a large number of key cellular pathways simultaneously. This has enabled the identification of key biomarkers and signaling molecules associated with cell growth, cell death, and cellular metabolism. These new markers are facilitating monitoring of functional disturbance, molecular and cellular damage, and damage-response. Improved imaging technologies have made it feasible to image some of these molecular events noninvasively. To meet the challenge of evaluating and developing consensus criteria for the application of these new technologies and biomarkers, consortium approaches are being increasingly undertaken to share resources and to build a common understanding among the research, industry, and regulatory communities. These developments promise more efficient pharmaceutical product development, safer and more efficacious drugs, and provide clinical practitioners with new and better biomarkers for cancer screening, patient monitoring, and choice of therapy.

Organizational citizenship: a case study of MedLink Ltd

A case study analysis was conducted on a Canadian company, to investigate the impact of selected independent variables on productivity, job satisfaction and organizational citizenship. The study tested the hypothesis that there was a decrease in these variables among employees because of ineffective project management resulting in unmet deadlines, incomplete end results, inequitable allocation of resources and inequitable levels of member participation to the accomplishment of projects. Concludes there appears to be a direct relationship between the factors of communication, leadership, power and politics, organizational structure and the decrease in productivity in terms of meeting project timelines and efficient product development.

A chain information model for structured knowledge management: towards effective and efficient food product improvement

New food products often fail, because they are not designed according to consumers' wishes or not produced efficiently. Frequently, the information required for an effective and efficient product development process is not relayed to the appropriate actor in the chain. This article presents a conceptual model to gather and disseminate information essential for successful product development. The model is based on the Quality Function Deployment method. Adjustments make it applicable for the development of food products. Using a systematic approach scenario's are generated which indicate possible options for the chain director to realise the intended product quality.

Implementation of concurrent engineering: a survey in Italy and Belgium

The concept of concurrent engineering (CE) has been known for quite a while now, and it has been widely recognized as a major enabler of fast and efficient product development. This paper examines the extent to which CE best practices, as obtained from a broad literature review, are being used effectively in companies. Companies both in Belgium and in Italy were investigated using a CE compliance checklist. The paper comments on usage patterns in both countries and compares them. Specific information per sector is also included. Finally, the positive impact of formal CE programs is proven by the data.

Practical Linux programming: device drivers, embedded systems, and the Internet

From the Publisher: Linux is becoming the OS of choice for embedded system designers and engineers, due to itsreal-time power and flexibility. This book/CD package introduces the essentials of the device driver and embedded system design process, including network printers, data acquisition systems, entrance security systems, and other general applications. It also addresses the growing need to integrate the Internet into all aspects of the design process. This unique approach is covered through examples that teach programmers how to incorporate Internet-related Web and database technology seamlessly with Linux inter-process communication facilities. These key technologies are covered throughout the book with real-world tutorials that teach programmers how to develop their own embedded applications. KEY FEATURES - Integrates the Internet design issues of Web and database technologies with inter-process communication facilities - Shows how to modularize a design project into manageable objects to achieve a fast and efficient product development cycle - Includes detailed coverage of Perl and Shell programming, HTML tags, SQL queries, and GNU system tools - Companion CD-ROM includes source code for all project examples and valuable third party software Author Biography: Ashfaq A. Khan is a development engineer for Xerox Corp. with over 20 years of experience designing and implementing embedded systems. Khan has conducted several workshops on embedded system design and is an adjunct professor at the University of California, Irvine. He resides in Torrance, CA.

Electronic new product development –‐ a conceptual framework

Today’s knowledge economy era is characterized by short product life‐cycles, dynamic customer requirements and complex business processes, knowledge management (KM) is becoming the pivot of new product development. In this article, the interactions between five activities of KM and new product development process are discussed in detail. Then, a novel concept – electronic new product development (E‐NPD) is put forward. E‐NPD is defined as the convergence of customer relationship, business processes, enterprise IT applications, and knowledge management system necessary to perform continuous innovation through new business model in the new knowledge‐based economy. Based on a case study in the high‐tech industry, we demonstrate that the convergence of KM and new product development have greatly enhanced the efficiency of new product development, accordingly led to the success of new product. In the end, it is concluded that competence of NPD is from KM by describing the E‐NPD structure as an organism.

New Trends in Rapid Product Development

This keynote paper presents an overview of new approaches in rapid product development from the design point of view. The evolution of the market has necessitated the reduction of time-to-market, mainly because the product life cycle is shorter, but also because it is very important to proceed more rapidly from an initial conception to a mass production object. As a result of newly evolved software environments, knowledge-based systems, and product data management, processes for integrated design and manufacturing for new products have emerged. Due to this evolution of rapid prototyping technologies, it has become possible today to obtain parts representative of mass production within a very short time. This keynote paper provides an overview of the actual trends in all the components that affect the speed and efficiency of product development, in particular all the possibilities available to the designer, from the earliest stages of a product's life cycle.

Why are there glitches in product development?

Managers and scholars emphasize the importance of inter‐departmental integration to successful product development and emphasize the importance of product development capabilities to firm performance. Interdepartmental integration can increase shared knowledge; this in turn can reduce the severity and incidence of seemingly unnecessary and costly mistakes leading to more efficient and effective product development. This paper examines the sources of shared knowledge problems across functional and product‐based groups. Using interviews, product development plans, and time‐sheet data, we look at the underlying factors behind two sources of knowledge sharing problems: (1) a serial product development process (i.e. little or no face‐to‐face communications) and (2) ineffective use of integrating mechanisms because of sticky knowledge. For each problem source, we find two key causal factors. We discuss the problems, their factors, and the implications for management and theory.

6.1.2 Determining the Impact of Change within your Method‐ and Toolbox for System Development

AbstractTo be successful in a highly dynamic environment, with increased global competition, shorter life cycles, more demanding customers/users, and more complex products, we have to strive for an effective and efficient product development system. In order to reach this goal, the right methods and tools are an important aspect, besides the right products, processes, strategies, requirements, people, etc. There are lots of different methods and tools well known, e.g., QFD, Taguchi, CAX, PDM, Robust Design, or DFX and most of them are applied (successfully?) in daily industrial practice. But what method or tool should we use, and when?For the right product development method/tool box, a comprehensive framework is needed, which supports the selection, coordination, and assessment according to domain‐ and company‐specific needs and constraints. Unfortunately, tools and methods often are used because it is popular to use them, but not because they ideally support the solution of specific problems. Therefore, in earlier papers a systematic approach was proposed on how methods and tools can be selected for a successful product development system, independent of the industrial sector of a company, but dependent on its problems, market constraints, and declared goals (Wenzel & Bauch 1996, Negele et al. 1998, Wenzel et al. 2000).This paper is an extension and a more detailed workout of the derived structured model, the “House of IPD” (IPD: Integrated Product Development). It was initially derived from the analysis of different product development processes at commercial companies in Germany, England, and the US (Wenzel & Bauch 1996). Two papers have already been presented at INCOSE symposia describing the structure, goals, benefits, and usage of the House of IPD (Negele et al. 2000, Wenzel et al. 2000).In the House of IPD, the interdependencies and relations between goals and problems, essentials/ processes, and practices can be structured. It is possible to visualize in a matrix, how and to what extent (qualitative) the practices (HOWs) contribute to the realization of certain essentials (WHATs), and which essentials support which goals or solve which problems (WHYs).In this paper, after shortly refreshing the basic concepts of the House of IPD, we will explain a method to determine the impact of changes in an existing method‐ and toolbox for complex system development. Therefore, the qualitative relationships represented in the House of IPD will be transformed into quantitative relationships. These can then be used to study the impact of methods & tools (HOWs) on essentials/ key success (WHATs) factors.

Learning from the competition through category appraisal: one practitioner's keys to faster and more efficient product development

AbstractThis paper presents a data‐based approach to jump‐starting the development process. The approach, category appraisal, obtains ratings from products in the competitive frame. Here, that competitive frame is soft‐serve ice cream. Data from consumer ratings of liking and sensory attributes enable the researcher to determine how well products perform, what sensory attributes ‘drive’ overall liking, and what sensory levels and landmark products correspond to newly identified market opportunities. These opportunities may consist of a highly acceptable product, a product with specific sensory attributes, or image attributes, or even some combination thereof.