The challenge of keeping any business working efficiently without getting in each other’s way can be difficult to manage. As products become more complex and design data more expansive, the problem of keeping everything in control grows harder. Product development projects now involve people from multiple departments trying to collapse product introduction lead times.
As if this was not complex enough, many companies are distributing these resources around the globe and forming virtual teams of people from different companies. If managing the product development process was a challenge before, it is not going to get any easier as companies continue to adopt global design strategies. Global design has cost benefits that are very attractive to today’s manufacturer, but adds new communication, control, and collaboration challenges and intensifies existing problem areas such as protecting intellectual property.
Companies that are best in class at meeting global product development targets follow best practice approaches to organization, performance measurement, business process, and technology. Top performers are more centrally organized and extend their management to the design network. Similarly, higher performing companies are measuring performance across the design network and more frequently than average companies. From a process perspective, companies hitting global design targets are standardizing processes more than average respondents, who also indicated standardization was the highest priority. From a technical perspective, best in class are more likely to have product data management, formal collaboration infrastructures, and standardized design tools.
As if this was not complex enough, many companies are distributing these resources around the globe and forming virtual teams of people from different companies. If managing the product development process was a challenge before, it is not going to get any easier as companies continue to adopt global design strategies. Global design has cost benefits that are very attractive to today’s manufacturer, but adds new communication, control, and collaboration challenges and intensifies existing problem areas such as protecting intellectual property.
Companies that are best in class at meeting global product development targets follow best practice approaches to organization, performance measurement, business process, and technology. Top performers are more centrally organized and extend their management to the design network. Similarly, higher performing companies are measuring performance across the design network and more frequently than average companies. From a process perspective, companies hitting global design targets are standardizing processes more than average respondents, who also indicated standardization was the highest priority. From a technical perspective, best in class are more likely to have product data management, formal collaboration infrastructures, and standardized design tools.
MEASURING PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PERFORMANCE
Measures of product development success can be categorized into those that relate to the speed and frequency of bringing new products online, to the productivity of the actual development process and to the quality of the actual products introduced (Time to Market, Productivity and Quality).
ANALYSIS
The strategic and financial impact of product design and process selection mandates that operations work closely with other organizational functions to make these decisions. Operations is an integral part of this decision because it understands issues of production, ease of fabrication, productivity, and quality.
Marketing is impacted by product design issues because they determine the types of products that will be produced and affect marketing’s ability to sell them. Marketing’s input is critical at this stage because marketing is the function that interfaces with customers and understands the types of product characteristics customers want. It is marketing that can provide operations with information on customer preferences, competition, and future trends.
Process selection decisions impact marketing as well. Process selection decisions typically require large capital outlays. Once in place, process decisions are typically difficult to change and are in place for a long time. Process decisions affect the types of future products that the company can produce. Because of this, marketing needs to be closely involved in ensuring that the process can meet market demands for many years to come.
Finance also plays an integral role in product design and process selection issues because these decisions require large financial outlays. Finance needs to be a part of these decisions to evaluate the financial impact on the company. Process selection decisions should be viewed as any other financial investment, with risks and rewards.
In the same manner, Information systems likewise needs to be part of the process selection decision. Operations decisions, such as forecasting, purchasing, scheduling, and inventory control, differ based on the type of operation the company has. Information systems will be quite different for intermittent, versus continuous, operations. Therefore, the information system has to be developed to match the needs of the production process being planned.
Purchasing works closely with suppliers to get the needed parts and raw materials at a favorable price. It is aware of product and material availability, scarcity, and price. Often certain materials or components can use less expensive substitutes if they are designed properly. For this reason it is important to have purchasing involved in product design issues from the very beginning.
Lastly, Engineering also needs to be an integral part of the product design and process selection decision because this is the function that understands product measurement, tolerances, strength of materials, and specific equipment needs. There can be many product design ideas, but it is up to engineering to evaluate their manufacturability.
Product design and process selection issues involve many functions and affect the entire organization. For this reason, product design and process selection decisions need to be made using a team effort, with all these functions working closely together to come up with a product plan that is best for the company.
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