Product Development-Faster, On-Time: Some Popular Tactics Work Well, but Others-Like Co-Location and Team Isolation-Can Actually Slow Down a Project, This Study Shows
Morgan L. Swink · Research-Technology Management · 2002
Speeding NPD and improving on-time project completion have for some time been top priorities at many firms (1-4). How can this be done? Strategic choices made in the idea generation stage certainly affect NPD time (5). The influences of end users, suppliers and various functional groups affect NPD time performance as well (6). Beyond these influences, however, project execution tactics greatly influence NPD time. Advances in product design and prototyping methods, communication technologies, and program management policies create many new ways to accomplish NPD (7-11). While some of the tactics have been linked to great success stories, others have questionable impact on NPD performance. This article examines the prevalence of a number of popular tactics for improving NPD speed and on-time performance. Survey data from over 130 NPD projects provide insights into the widespread use, the perceived impact, and the actual impact of these methods on time-based performance in accelerated and normal-speed projects. The results suggest that some tactics often do not deliver the expected results. At the same time, some of the other, more effective methods appear to be underutilized. NPD Tactics and Tools Specifically, this study addresses 18 tactics and tools that researchers and consultants have suggested are important contributors to product development success. Table 1 groups the tactics into four broad categories. 1. Leadership tactics include managerial policies regarding project goals, rewards and procedures. Such tactics include providing explicit project goals, pre-project training, rewards for speed, and additional resources. These tactics are designed to enable faster execution of development activities. Omitting normal development steps, procedures, approvals, or inspections streamlines the development process by eliminating nonessential activities. 2. Organizational tactics affect the location and the constituency of NPD project personnel. Outsourcing development activities is a means of reducing internal resource requirements and increasing efficiency when parties outside the firm have more relevant expertise. Isolating and co-locating project personnel are thought to minimize interruptions and communication delays, thereby encouraging more concentrated team efforts and facilitating richer, more immediate communication among development team members. Organizing development personnel into cross-functional teams ensures that the concerns of multiple product and process design specialties are addressed simultaneously. Including only certified suppliers on the development team increases the likelihood that supplier inputs to the design process will be of high quality. 3. Design analysis tactics include methodologies that improve the translation of desired product attributes into product and process design specifications. Quality function deployment (QFD) and design-for-manufacture (DFM) methodologies are aimed at improving communication between marketing, product design and manufacturing personnel. These approaches are believed to minimize product and process design errors and concomitant rework. Rapid prototyping and producing prototypes on full-scale production tools can improve the speed and quality of information gleaned from the prototyping process. 4. Computer-based tools facilitate the planning, communication and execution of NPD activities. Computerized project scheduling simplifies the management of the development process, helping managers to identify the activities and paths that require the greatest attention. Computer-aided-design (CAD) systems and shared electronic databases make it easy for designers in different, perhaps distant, locations to quickly evaluate design alternatives. Electronic communication networks offer electronic mail and conferencing capabilities that increase the potential for richer, more frequent and more rapid communications among team members. …