Context-Adapted Methods of Modern Product Development: Recommendations and Best Practice Examples

AbstractSmall- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make a considerable contribution to the development and diffusion of innovation as well as accounting for the bulk of economic activity and employment in Ireland. A formal process for managing the stages of innovation projects is generally cited as a key component of best practice in new product development (NPD). Successfully managing innovation is an important business objective for SMEs, and yet, relatively little is known about how innovation-active firms approach innovation and, specifically, whether firms use formal processes to manage their NPD activities. This study of innovation-active Irish SMEs finds that three quarters of firms report that they do not operate a formal innovation process, yet this is not associated with poorer performance in terms of revenues from new products and services; and there are few differences between firms with formal innovation processes and firms with informal innovation process across each stage of the Innovation Value Chain. Having a more formal innovation process is, however, associated with success at bringing novel products to market. This study contributes to our understanding of the management of innovation in SMEs and to the emerging literature on SMEs that has emphasised both the prevalence and the effectiveness of informal management processes.

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Cross-cutting best practices for new product development (NPD) in turbulent environments: the effects of integration and co-creation

Innovation & Management Review ◽

10.1108/inmr-04-2020-0053 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Mateus Panizzon ◽

Gabriel Vidor ◽

Maria Emília Camargo

Keyword(s):

Best Practices ◽

Product Development ◽

New Product Development ◽

Strategic Alliances ◽

Best Practice ◽

New Product ◽

Business Environment ◽

Content Type ◽

Turbulent Environments ◽

Research Opportunity

PurposeContinuous understanding of the best practices associated with new product development is a constant research opportunity to advance knowledge in the field, as far as changes in the business environment and the increasing turbulence level in different market segments create and reposition the importance of practices over time.Design/methodology/approachBased on a systematic review, the study aimed to analyze the 100 most relevant articles published in international journals on new product development (NDP), identifying new patterns on the best practices for new product development and the types of relationship involved in NPD.FindingsAmong the several practices observed in the literature, the analysis point to a larger group of studies that converge on the identification of a positive and significant relationship in integration – simultaneously – between supplier, company, customers and strategic alliances and the performance of NPD.Research limitations/implicationsThese results support integration as a cross-cutting and structural best practice for NPD, as long as it is constituted as a capacity, mainly applied in highly turbulent environments. This approach supported the proposition of a new framework.Practical implicationsOrganizations will be able to implement the proposed framework to NPD strategy in order to prioritize resources in best practices, aiming to increase the performance of new product development.Social implicationsThe adoption of integration and co-creation practices for the development of new products expands the possibilities of economic and social development, based on the involvement of the actors in this network.Originality/valueThis model had not yet been proposed in the literature, filling a gap in the agenda for future studies.

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NPD process formality across global regions

International Journal of Innovation Science ◽

10.1108/ijis-02-2018-0024 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 102-118

Author(s):

Kenneth B. Kahn

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Product Development ◽

New Product Development ◽

Best Practice ◽

Radical Innovation ◽

Incremental Innovation ◽

Comparative Performance ◽

Data Set ◽

Formal Process ◽

Content Type

Purpose The paper aims to address the issue of generalizability by examining process formality across the global regions of North America, Europe and Asia. A common prescription in the new product development (NPD) discipline is to employ a formal process. Because generalizability of this prescription has not been fully investigated across global regions, the present manuscript addresses the issue of generalizability by examining process formality across the global regions of North America, Europe and Asia. Design/methodology/approach Recently made available to researchers, data of the Product Development and Management Association’s 2012 Comparative Performance Assessment Study (CPAS) were analyzed. The uniqueness of the 2012 CPAS data set is its global composition with sizable samples from North America, Europe and Asia. Chi-square tests and multivariate analysis of variance were applied. Findings Results support use of a formal process, as companies with a formal NPD process perceived higher performance than companies with no standard process. Process formality appears to differ across regions and be influenced by innovation strategy. European firms tended to not use a formal process when pursuing radical innovation, and these firms perceived higher performance. North American firms tended to not use a formal process when pursing incremental innovation, but these firms perceived lower performance. Practical implications Having some NPD process is generally better than not having any process at all. Process differences across regions appear to exist when pursuing radical innovation or incremental innovation. Originality/value This is one of few studies comparing global regions to examine generalizability of a best practice prescription, namely, the extent to which a formal process should be implemented.

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Exploring the Collaborative Integration of Service Providers in the New Product Development Process of Automobile Manufacturers

10.46289/mklp2514 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Peter T. Mehrle

Keyword(s):

Product Development ◽

New Product Development ◽

Practice Guidelines ◽

Best Practice ◽

Service Providers ◽

New Product ◽

Product Development Process ◽

Complex Products ◽

Best Practice Guidelines ◽

Process Collaboration

This Doctorate of Business Administration thesis examines the collaborative integration of engineering service providers (ESPs) in the new product development (NPD) process of automobile manufacturers. Through 11 qualitative key informant interviews with leading suppliers and buyers and the analysis of two case studies with a total of 22 interviewees, the explorative study analyses collaboration models, risks, motives, barriers and best practice guidelines for the identified two most important cooperation models in the field. The thesis draws on the literature of NPD processes, collaborative NPD, early supplier involvement, knowledge management, and relationship management in the automotive sector. The theory provides an introduction and serves as a basis for the developed guideline model. The provided best practice guidelines, sorted into the categories of ‘people’, ‘process’, ‘collaboration technology’, and ‘product technology’, are expected to improve collaboration in the joint NPD of complex products or technologies if these are applied by the management. Thus, the guideline model serves as a managerial tool to set priorities in the different phases of joint development, facilitate joint activities, and optimize NPD efficiency. Insights from this research are broadly applicable in the context of outsourced development of highly complex products or technologies to service providers. The thesis concludes with the discussion of its contribution to practice and theory and with an outlook on future developments in the ESP market.

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Focus on implementation: a framework for lean product development

Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management ◽

10.1108/17410381211196267 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 4-24 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

L. Wang ◽

X.G. Ming ◽

F.B. Kong ◽

D. Li ◽

P.P. Wang

Keyword(s):

Product Development ◽

Best Practice ◽

Marketing Research ◽

Product Development Process ◽

Research Approach ◽

Implementation Framework ◽

Content Type ◽

Lean Product Development ◽

The Right ◽

Tools And Techniques

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce a step‐by‐step implementation framework for lean product development (LPD), from the marketing research on product development process, product design to the launch of final production.Design/methodology/approachThe research approach taken in this paper is built around the primary industry cases, practical approaches and partial solutions available within the existing literature.FindingsThe most recent improvement of LPD, from the authors' perspective, focuses on tools and implementation for LPD. In this paper, a detailed step‐by‐step implementation is given after the framework is introduced. Led by value and waste analysis in product development, different tools and techniques which can be used to eliminate wastes were discussed briefly, and then the implementation from Doing the Right Thing to Doing the Right Thing for company transition to lean were proposed elaborately.Research limitations/implicationsDue to time and economic environment limitations, the authors have not covered and implemented this approach in all existing different environments to ensure that it is robust.Originality/valueThe approach described here seeks to overcome other frameworks' weaknesses in terms of the realistic aspect and feasibility, and combines more existing best practice from industry, consultancy and academia into a step‐by‐step framework for the achievement of effective LPD.

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A BPM Framework for NPD Process Knowledge Management

Enterprise Business Modeling, Optimization Techniques, and Flexible Information Systems ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-3946-1.ch010 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 127-140

Author(s):

Antonio Caforio ◽

Angelo Corallo ◽

Angelo Dimartino

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Management ◽

Product Development ◽

New Product Development ◽

Best Practice ◽

New Product ◽

Product Development Process ◽

Process Knowledge ◽

Strategic Resources ◽

Knowledge Intensive ◽

Definition Of

In today’s context of strong competition among organizations and rapid changes in business surroundings, the organizations really need to start thinking about improving their performance, especially in knowledge intensive processes such as New Product Development. Business Process Management and Knowledge Management can represent organization’s strategic resources to the extent in which they are viewed as a base of success or failure, but they need to be supported by synergic systems that allow shaping the context in which knowledge is created and where knowledge can be re-used. Managing the explicit definition of the NPD processes and its resources allows the regulation of reusable “process knowledge,” the achievement of standardization, the improvement of best practice reuse, the improvement of time/cost efficiency, and the support of workers in the retrieval of knowledge resources suitable to conduct the product development activities. Thus, the aim of the chapter is to study how to best support companies in the collection and organization of process knowledge in the domain of their new product development, and to present an NPD process knowledge management framework which, starting from BPM approaches and its related technologies, allows the building of the required knowledge for the product development process more effectively for users and stakeholders.

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Analysis of new product development research: 1998-2009

Benchmarking An International Journal ◽

10.1108/bij-06-2012-0040 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 21 (4) ◽

pp. 527-618 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Vinayak Kalluri ◽

Rambabu Kodali

Keyword(s):

Product Development ◽

New Product Development ◽

Information Transfer ◽

Best Practice ◽

New Product ◽

Service Level ◽

Research Articles ◽

Content Type ◽

Comprehensive Listing ◽

Research Stream

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic review and analysis of existing research articles on new product development (NPD) published in the 12-year period starting from 1998 to 2009. Design/methodology/approach – To explore the articles related to NPD, four key words namely new product, product design, product development and product innovation were used in combination of title or abstract or keyword of the articles through several knowledge databases. The abstracts of journal papers were read and a decision as to whether article belongs to any NPD research issue or not was made. In total, 1,127 research articles were categorized systematically and then analyzed on various principal NPD information groups. Findings – Analysis of selected articles led to a certain level of dispersion in the publication of NPD research in different journals. It is found that more attention needs to be on knowledge and creativity management, communication and information transfer in any NPD process. Originality/value – By observing extended literature from authors reviewing articles from various journals, growth in research, and variety of topics covered in NPD, a broad systematic multi journal review of NPD literature is clearly overdue. The authors have developed a comprehensive listing of publications on NPD where they have classified the surveyed papers according to various principal NPD information groups like: published year, NPD research stream, type of organization studied (industrial/consumer/service), level of innovation (high/moderate/low), NPD focus on frameworks, performance perspective (success, failure or both), NPD research design (conceptual/empirical and qualitative/quantitative) and NPD relevant best practice element. Based on the classification scheme, the issues were analyzed from the system's perspective and their implications to NPD research.

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