Managing New Product Development (NPD) (TM46-41-0)

SynopsisThis course is designed to assist managers and technical staff of companies (MNCs and SMEs) to improve or start up their new product development (NPD) initiatives. NPD ideally should be a cross-functional activity and therefore the course is aimed at professionals working in business management, engineering, marketing, sales, manufacturing, R&D, and customer service. The sessions are modeled after those developed for the workshops of the International Association for Product Development, USA and the Time to Market Association, UK. The membership of these associations includes many well-known best practice companies in the fields of IT, aerospace, automotive, domestic and industrial products.

Course Highlight
The workshop emphasizes the importance of appreciation through experiential exchanges and discussion. The sessions, run as workshops and totaling some 21 hours, will provide the basics and fundamental understanding of the processes on how to manage NPD more effectively. Each session will typically consist of focused presentations followed by facilitated discussions in small groups. The exchange of ideas and experience between the participants and the presenter will also be a valuable feature of the workshops.

What previous participants say about this course
Answers to the question 'what did you like most about the course'

• "Real experience shared (industry experience)" - 17 Apr 06
• "Example given, there are many examples given to help understand the key points. John explains clearly on key concept" - 17 Apr 06
• "There is a lot of scenarios discussion lead by the instrustor. A lot of story told by the instructor" - 17 Apr 06
• "Relevance. Instructor is experienced, seasoned" - 17 Apr 06
• "Included some case studies and lesson learnt from real scenario" - 17 Apr 06
• "The example provided are good. The lecturer is very experience and able to provide real life situation/scenario" - 16 May 07
• "Workshop/discussion and a lots of samples given to support the points" - 16 May 07
• "Great examples eg. On Technology Management Section" - 16 May 07

What You Will Learn

• NPD as a "Business Process"
• the NPD best practice models
• market wining product strategies
• the importance of managing technology
• project team, reviews and metrics
• risk management and profiling
• business process mapping

Who Should Attend

• R&D managers/Product development managers
• engineers preferable with some experience in projects
• project leaders
• manufacturing managers
• business managers
• marketing managers

PrerequisiteSome experience in leading technical projects, product development or product marketing is preferable.

Course MethodologyThe sessions, run as workshops and totaling some 21 hours, will provide the basics and fundamental understanding of the processes on how to manage NPD more effectively. Each session will typically consist of focused presentations followed by facilitated discussions in small groups. Each participant will receive a set of course material.

Course Duration3 days, 9am - 5pm

Course Structure1) NPD as a "Business Process" - driven by business needs, and the NPD Best Practice Models
Overview of the "Business Case" for NPD

• the selling life cycle and reminder of financials
• the product Profit & Loss *- the sensitivity of profits to misjudgments, budget overruns , higher factory costs, and late product launch to market
• Overview of the "Product Practice Models" and their elements
• cross-functional core and extended team
• leaders and facilitators
• the role of functional management
• the high level team for steering the NPD project
• phase reviews
• product strategy
• technology management
• product definition
• re-use
• metrics
• risk management
• partnerships

Facilitated discussions in break-out groups

• implementation of good NPD processes and avoiding the pitfalls
• the need for good performance from the high level team
• good rigour for the reviews, early manufacturing inputs, strong team leadership, and realistic planning
• also "Get it right first time"? - but can we?

2) Product Strategy ( = some "marketing" )
company vision and mission
business planning process
product champions
forced and opportunistic changes in strategy
product line expansion

• strategies for new business
• prioritization - making the choices

choosing the right value options (price and perceived quality)
connection between strategy and technology management
creating "edge" (= strong competitive position) by DESIGN innovation and Kano delighters - just as much as by new technology
facilitated discussion on the product business plan- be realistic, honest but no stretch target, or

• be over-stretched and unattainable and therefore always disappointing and morale reducing?

3) Technology Management
the main objectives of technology management for NPD
the seed, feed, and search technology models of how technology becomes incorporated into a new product.

• about disruptive, sustaining and radical technologies
• road mapping
• off-line and on-line exploratory development
• key technologies and their availability
• long/medium/short term horizons
• technology as a "barrier against new entrants to the business", or, "technology lets new entrants in"
• partnerships in technology

facilitated discussion in small groups:

• "To be a leader or a fast follower?" and/or
• "trying to invent, in industrial laboratories, new breakthrough technologies like semiconductor lasers and fiber optics may not always pack back much to the inventing company"

4) Teaming, Reviews & Metrics
teaming

• the project core and extended team.
• the project team leader.
• team roles and styles with the Belbin model.
• human behaviour issues and balanced teams.
• buy-in by the team to the strategy and planning.
• stages of team development, performance, and de-commissioning.
• rewards and recognition.
• performance appraisal and feedback.
• the high level management team and its role in setting up the project and project team, guiding the team, and orchestrating the reviews.
• cohesion and performance of the high level management team.

reviews

• the changing nature of reviews (e.g. from "inspection" to "prevention")
• necessity and types of reviews
• the review process
• planning and conducting successful (value added) reviews **detecting errors **making adjustments due to change in circumstances **ensuring readiness to proceed to the next stage
• the need for metrics
• facilitated discussion in small groups **"Reviews - value added process or rubber stamp time wasting?"

metrics (measurements):

• predictive and results metrics
• financial and non-financial
• quantitative and qualitative
• half-life metrics for driving continuous improvements
• the metrics scorecard.
• facilitated discussions in small groups **construct a metrics scorecard for a major product development

5) Product Definition & Voice of the Customer ( = more "marketing")
the Kano model
background research including customer research and competitive evaluation etc.
the stages of product definition from sources of ideas through to technical specification. the use of

• QFD (= Quality Functional Deployment)
• Contextual Inquiry
• Focus Groups and other methods.

to obtain the best product definition a combination of methods is needed.
who are the customers ? - end users, company buyers, wholesalers, retailers ?
who makes the buying decisions ?
product definition problems

• creeping elegance
• necessary changes not being allowed, etc.

facilitated discussion in small groups

• how to innovate "Kano delighters" ?
• Freeze the product definition early, or allow some creeping elegance during the development?

6) Risk Management, Business Process Mapping

• risk management
• sources of risks
• speculative and non-speculative risks
• chance and Impact
• risk profiles
• value at risk
• costs of risk reduction, remedies and contingencies
• incident management
• risk ranking - Delphi technique.

Facilitated discussions in small groups

• "risk profiling and financial accounting for risks is often avoided, or not done properly"

Business Process Mapping

• documenting
• mapping
• improving the processes.
• use as a tool for BPR (Business Process Re-engineering).
• types and levels of process maps.
• 4 fields maps.
• mapping "as is" and "should be".
• the mapping methods and "quick wins"

7) Wrap-up: Feed-back discussion from the participants.