All of us have read or heard about successes in speeding up and improving product development. You know stories like these.

 A computer equipment manufacturer was able to develop new models 30% faster and moved from having the most costly products in its market to having the best price and value position. Sales increased 50% in this very competitive market.

An industrial equipment manufacturer was struggling to stay in business. Through streamlining the development process and using several new team and design techniques, the company reduced development time by 40%. By focusing on design simplicity, they reduced the number of parts by 50%. Result: huge direct and indirect annual cost savings. Today, the company prospers.

It is not new news to proclaim that companies that focus on outstanding product designs will increase customer satisfaction and retention. And, that will lead to increased sales, market share, profitability and future company growth.

Nor is it new news that "first-to-market" companies will enjoy less initial competition, will be able to charge a premium or attain higher profit margins. Or, that "first-to-clone" companies will beat competitors to an improved or lower cost alternative while avoiding the development and market risks of first-to-market companies.

And, faster development will lower development costs and reduce the opportunity window for "feature creep" during product design.

So, Why Aren't We Doing It?

Unfortunately, too many companies can't realize the benefits of better, faster product development because they don't really understand their own development process. Unknowingly, companies become internally driven rather than market and customer driven and practice "over-the-wall" development.

This creates problems. Big problems. Design focus and priorities shift as each function gets involved which can result in a mismatch between the design and manufacturing or field service capability. Worse yet, important customer needs are often not met and the product may bomb in the marketplace.

In these companies product development is viewed as a series of isolated "do what you want" technical projects.

On the other hand, leading innovative companies treat product development as a strategic process to manage because they see it as a competitive strategy for increasing market share and accelerating growth. They make it part of their business plan and use integrated development process thinking.

Integrated Product Development (IPD)

When companies manage the product development process in a concurrent manner rather than sequentially, things are done differently.

Each new product effort is led by a small cross-functional team which makes important decisions together from the start of the project and employs joint problem solving at each stage of development. These small core teams of 5-12 members use integration techniques that facilitate listening to the customer and hearing each other.

And, they are constantly learning how to make the development process faster and better. They analyze, audit and improve by looking for:

• breakdowns

• delays

• low value adds

• choke points

• poor hand-offs

• cooperation gaps

Senior management focuses on looking for and eliminating:

• management induced delays

• under-resourced projects

• too many projects

• fuzzy project charters

Management also strengthens the process by adding important elements:

• core teams empowered within specific boundaries

• facilitated team development

• constructive, early on management involvement

• effective use of information technology

• product development process metrics

Changing the way product development is managed and executed is a difficult thing to pull off. Most companies discover it requires a much bigger culture change effort than anticipated. To overcome resistance to change and functional "silo" mentality, a comprehensive organization assessment of the readiness for, and resistance to, change is needed. The assessment can then be followed by a well thought out change strategy and implementation plan.

 Since this is a strategic and large scale change effort, it must be visibly supported and reviewed by the President or General Manager of the company. However, the hands-on champion may be the VP of Development, Marketing or Operations. Under the champion's guidance, specific change projects need to be assigned to managers throughout the organization. Accountability for these projects needs to be built into job objectives, measurements and rewards.

Summary

To be development leaders, companies must attend to all the pieces necessary for success:

• superior customer requirements analysis

• integration of functions

• development process redesign

• use of strong program managers who report directly to top management

• use of self-directed, core teams (preferably collocated and dedicated)

• facilitated team development

• use of relevant design integration techniques:

  • Voice-of-the-Customer Analysis

  • Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

  • Taguchi Design and Process Optimization

  • Pugh Concept Development

  • Design for Simplicity

  • Design for Manufacture

  • Design for Assembly

  • Design for Test

  • Design for Service

• constructive management involvement

• effective use of information technology to speed up and integrate communications and analysis

By viewing product development as a key strategic process, by providing top management leadership, and by attending to all the pieces, integrated product development can become a potent reality.

Note: This article appeared in the Fall issue of Visions magazine published by the Product Development and Management Association.

About the Author

Neil Love is a Partner at LBL Consulting, Inc. in San Jose, CA, and has led several best practices studies in integrated product development and quality management for leading firms. He is a Director of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Society of Concurrent Engineering, a national committee member of the Product Development and Management Association, a State of California Quality Award Examiner and a Certified Management Consultant (CMC). He can be reached at - 408-923-9292 or neil@lblconsulting.com or via web site: http://www.lblconsulting.com

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