New product development

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In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) is the term used to
describe the complete process of bringing a new product or service to market. There are
two parallel paths involved in the NPD process: one involves the idea generation, product
design and detail engineering; the other involves market research and marketing analysis.
Companies typically see new product development as the first stage in generating and
commercializing new products within the overall strategic process of product life cycle
management used to maintain or grow their market share.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 The process
• 2 Fuzzy Front End
• 3 NPD organizations
• 4 NPD strategies
• 5 Related fields
• 6 See also

• 7 References

[edit] The process

1. Idea Generation is often called the "fuzzy front end" of the NPD process
o Ideas for new products can be obtained from basic research using a SWOT
analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats), Market and
consumer trends, company's R&D department, competitors, focus groups,
employees, salespeople, corporate spies, trade shows, or Ethnographic
discovery methods (searching for user patterns and habits) may also be
used to get an insight into new product lines or product features.
o Idea Generation or Brainstorming of new product, service, or store
concepts - idea generation techniques can begin when you have done your
OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS to support your ideas in the Idea Screening
Phase (shown in the next development step).
2. Idea Screening
o The object is to eliminate unsound concepts prior to devoting resources to
them.
o The screeners should ask several questions:
 Will the customer in the target market benefit from the product?
 What is the size and growth forecasts of the market segment/target
market?
 What is the current or expected competitive pressure for the
product idea?
 What are the industry sales and market trends the product idea is
based on?
 Is it technically feasible to manufacture the product?
 Will the product be profitable when manufactured and delivered to
the customer at the target price?
3. Concept Development and Testing
o Develop the marketing and engineering details
 Investigate intellectual property issues and search patent data bases
 Who is the target market and who is the decision maker in the
purchasing process?
 What product features must the product incorporate?
 What benefits will the product provide?
 How will consumers react to the product?
 How will the product be produced most cost effectively?
 Prove feasibility through virtual computer aided rendering, and
rapid prototyping
 What will it cost to produce it?
o Testing the Concept by asking a sample of prospective customers what
they think of the idea. Usually via Choice Modelling.
4. Business Analysis
o Estimate likely selling price based upon competition and customer
feedback
o Estimate sales volume based upon size of market and such tools as the
Fourt-Woodlock equation
o Estimate profitability and breakeven point
5. Beta Testing and Market Testing
o Produce a physical prototype or mock-up
o Test the product (and its packaging) in typical usage situations
o Conduct focus group customer interviews or introduce at trade show
o Make adjustments where necessary
o Produce an initial run of the product and sell it in a test market area to
determine customer acceptance
6. Technical Implementation
o New program initiation
o Finalize Quality management system
o Resource estimation
o Requirement publication
 oPublish technical communications such as data sheets
oEngineering operations planning
oDepartment scheduling
oSupplier collaboration
oLogistics plan
oResource plan publication
oProgram review and monitoring
oContingencies - what-if planning
7. Commercialization (often considered post-NPD)
o Launch the product
o Produce and place advertisements and other promotions
o Fill the distribution pipeline with product
o Critical path analysis is most useful at this stage
8. New Product Pricing
o Impact of new product on the entire product portfolio
o Value Analysis (internal & external)
o Competition and alternative competitive technologies
o Differing value segments (price, value, and need)
o Product Costs (fixed & variable)
o Forecast of unit volumes, revenue, and profit

These steps may be iterated as needed. Some steps may be eliminated. To reduce the time
that the NPD process takes, many companies are completing several steps at the same
time (referred to as concurrent engineering or time to market). Most industry leaders
see new product development as a proactive process where resources are allocated to
identify market changes and seize upon new product opportunities before they occur (in
contrast to a reactive strategy in which nothing is done until problems occur or the
competitor introduces an innovation). Many industry leaders see new product
development as an ongoing process (referred to as continuous development) in which the
entire organization is always looking for opportunities.

For the more innovative products indicated on the diagram above, great amounts of
uncertainty and change may exist, which makes it difficult or impossible to plan the
complete project before starting it. In this case, a more flexible approach may be
advisable.

Because the NPD process typically requires both engineering and marketing expertise,
cross-functional teams are a common way of organizing projects. The team is responsible
for all aspects of the project, from initial idea generation to final commercialization, and
they usually report to senior management (often to a vice president or Program Manager).
In those industries where products are technically complex, development research is
typically expensive, and product life cycles are relatively short, strategic alliances among
several organizations helps to spread the costs, provide access to a wider skill set, and
speeds the overall process.
Also, notice that because engineering and marketing expertise are usually both critical to
the process, choosing an appropriate blend of the two is important. Observe (for example,
by looking at the See also or References sections below) that this article is slanted more
toward the marketing side. For more of an engineering slant, see the Ulrich and Eppinger,
Ullman references below.[1][2]

People respond to new products in different ways. The adoption of a new technology can
be analyzed using a variety of diffusion theories such as the Diffusion of innovations
theory.

A new product pricing process is important to reduce risk and increase confidence in the
pricing and marketing decisions to be made. Bernstein and Macias describe an integrated
process that breaks down the complex task of new product pricing into manageable
elements.[3]

[edit] Fuzzy Front End

The Fuzzy Front End is the messy "getting started" period of new product development
processes. It is in the front end where the organization formulates a concept of the
product to be developed and decides whether or not to invest resources in the further
development of an idea. It is the phase between first consideration of an opportunity and
when it is judged ready to enter the structured development process (Kim and Wilemon ,
2002;[4] Koen et al., 2001).[5] It includes all activities from the search for new
opportunities through the formation of a germ of an idea to the development of a precise
concept. The Fuzzy Front End ends when an organization approves and begins formal
development of the concept.

Although the Fuzzy Front End may not be an expensive part of product development, it
can consume 50% of development time (see Chapter 3 of the Smith and Reinertsen
reference below),[6] and it is where major commitments are typically made involving
time, money, and the product’s nature, thus setting the course for the entire project and
final end product. Consequently, this phase should be considered as an essential part of
development rather than something that happens “before development,” and its cycle
time should be included in the total development cycle time.

Koen et al. (2001, pp. 47–51)[5] distinguish five different front-end elements (not
necessarily in a particular order):

1. Opportunity Identification
2. Opportunity Analysis
3. Idea Genesis
4. Idea Selection
5. Concept and Technology Development

The first element is the opportunity identification. In this element, large or incremental
business and technological chances are identified in a more or less structured way. Using
the guidelines established here, resources will eventually be allocated to new projects....
which then lead to a structured NPPD (New Product & Process Development)strategy.
The second element is the opportunity analysis. It is done to translate the identified
opportunities into implications for the business and technology specific context of the
company. Here extensive efforts may be made to align ideas to target customer groups
and do market studies and/or technical trials and research. The third element is the idea
genesis, which is described as evolutionary and iterative process progressing from birth
to maturation of the opportunity into a tangible idea. The process of the idea genesis can
be made internally or come from outside inputs, e.g. a supplier offering a new
material/technology, or from a customer with an unusual request. The fourth element is
the idea selection. Its purpose is to choose whether to pursue an idea by analyzing its
potential business value. The fifth element is the concept and technology development.
During this part of the front-end, the business case is developed based on estimates of the
total available market, customer needs, investment requirements, competition analysis
and project uncertainty. Some organizations consider this to be the first stage of the
NPPD process (i.e., Stage 0).

The Fuzzy Front End is also described in literature as "Front End of Innovation", "Phase
0", "Stage 0" or "Pre-Project-Activities".

A universally acceptable definition for Fuzzy Front End or a dominant framework has not
been developed so far.[7] In a glossary of PDMA[8], it is mentioned that the Fuzzy Front
End generally consists of three tasks: strategic planning, concept generation, and,
especially, pre-technical evaluation. These activities are often chaotic, unpredictible, and
unstructured. In comparison, the subsequent new product development process is
typically structured, predictable, and formal. The term Fuzzy Front End was first
popularized by Smith and Reinertsen (1991)[9] R.G.Cooper (1988)[10] describes the early
stages of NPPD as a four step process in which ideas are generated (I),subjected to a
preliminary technical and market assessment(II) and merged to coherent product
concepts(III) which are finally judged for their fit with existing product strategies and
portfolios (IV). In a more recent paper, Cooper and Edgett (2008) [11] affirm that vital
predevelopment activities include:

1. Preliminary market assessment.

2. Technical assessment.
3. Source-of-supply-assessment:suppliers and partners or alliances.
4. Market research : market size and segmentation analysis,VoC (voice of customer)
research.
5. Product concept testing
6. Value-to-the customer assessment
7. Product definition
8. Business and financial analysis.

These activities yield vital information to make a Go/No-Go to Development decision.

In the in-depth study by Khurana and Rosenthal[12] front-end activities include:

 • product strategy formulation and communication,
• opportunity identification and assessment,
• idea generation,
• product definition,
• project planning, and
• executive reviews.

Economical analysis, benchmarking of competitive products,and modeling and

prototyping are also important activities during the front-end activities.

The outcomes of FFE are the

• mission statement
• customer needs
• details of the selected concept
• product definition and specifications
• economic analysis of the product
• the development schedule
• project staffing and the budget, and a
• business plan aligned with corporate strategy.

In a paper by Husig, Kohn and Huskela (2005)[13] was proposed a conceptual model of
Front-End Process which includes early Phases of Innovation Process. This model is
structured in three phases and three gates:

• Phase 1: Environmental screening or opportunity identification stage in which

external changes will be analysed and translated into potential business
opportunities.
• Phase 2: Preliminary definition of an idea or concept.
• Phase 3: Detailed product, project or concept definition, and Business planning.

The gates are:

• Opportunity screening;
• Idea evaluation;
• Go/No-Go for development.

The final gate leads to a dedicated new product development project . Many professionals
and academics consider that the general features of Fuzzy Front End
(fuzziness,,ambiguity, and uncertainty) make difficult to see the FFE as a structured
process,but rather as a set of interdependent activities ( e.g.Kim and Wilemon ,2002).[14]
However, Husig et al.,2005 [10] argue that front-end not need to be fuzzy,but can be
handled in a structured manner. Peter Koen[15] argue that in the FFE for
incremental,platform and radical projects,three separate strategies and processes are
typically involved.[15] The traditional Stage Gate (TM) process was designed for
incremental product development,namely for a single product.The FFE for developing a
new platform must start out with a strategic vision of where the company wants to
develop products and this will lead to a family of products. Projects for breakthrough
products start out with a similar strategic vision,but are associated with technologies
which require new discoveries.It is worth mentioning what are incremental,platform and
breakthrough products. Incremental products are considered to be cost reductions,
improvements to existing product lines,additions to existing platforms and repositioning
of existing products introduced in markets. Breakthrough products are new to the
company or new to the world and offer a 5-10 times or greater improvement in
performance combined with a 30-50% or greater reduction in costs. Platform products
establish a basic architecture for a next generation product or process and are
substantially larger in scope and resources than incremental projects[15].

[edit] NPD organizations

• Product Development and Management Association (PDMA)
• Association of International Product Marketing & Management

[edit] NPD strategies

• Design for six sigma
• Stage-Gate model
• Quality function deployment
• Flexible product development

[edit] Related fields

• Marketing
• Engineering
• Brand management
• Product management
• Industrial design