scholarly journals REASONING IN THE FUZZY FRONT END OF INNOVATION: FRAMING THE PRODUCT DNA

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (05) ◽  
pp. 1840001
Author(s):  
LOUISE MØLLER HAASE ◽  
LINDA NHU LAURSEN
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Product Innovation ◽  
Main Product ◽  
Product Concept ◽  
Fuzzy Front End ◽  
Front End ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
Innovative Products ◽  
Difficult Challenge

Designing a remarkable product innovation is a difficult challenge, which businesses today are continuously striving to tackle. This challenge is particularly present in the fuzzy front end of innovation, where the main product concept, the DNA of the innovation, is determined. A main challenge in the fuzzy front end is the reasoning process: innovation teams are faced with open-ended, ill-defined problems, where they need to make decisions about an unknown future but have only incomplete, ambiguous and contradicting insights available. We study the reasoning of experts, how they frame to make sense of all the insights and create a basis for decision-making in relation to a new project. Based on case studies of five innovative products from various industries, we propose a Product DNA model for understanding the reasoning in the fuzzy front end of innovation. The Product DNA Model explains how experts reason and what direct their reasoning.

STRATEGIC AND OPERATIVE LEVEL FRONT-END INNOVATION ACTIVITIES — INTEGRATION PERSPECTIVE

2007 ◽  
Vol 04 (04) ◽  
pp. 433-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
JARNO POSKELA
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Product Innovation ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Front End ◽  
Top Managers ◽  
Critical Phase ◽  
Strategy Making ◽  
Target Markets

The front-end phase is in the literature generally regarded as the most critical phase of the innovation process. Front-end management has a strategic nature since important decisions related e.g. to target markets and the main functionalities of products are done in the front-end phase. This article examines how the integration of strategic and operative level front-end activities is perceived by top managers in the product innovation context. The findings indicate that companies exploit different strategy-making processes, and that each strategy-making mode is prone to particular integration challenges. The results show that the effectiveness of integration of strategic and operative level front-end activities is dependent on the level of concreteness of the defined business strategies, the amount of business-minded decision making, and the balance between control and creativity.

Significance of operational capabilities of suppliers on the front-end decision making in apparel product innovation in Sri Lanka

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Niromi Seram ◽  
Julian Nanayakkara ◽  
Gamini Lanarolle
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Product Innovation ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Apparel Manufacturing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Front End ◽  
Operational Capabilities ◽  
Apparel Product

Purpose The suppliers are recognized as important external sources who can significantly contribute by working together with the buyer during the innovation process. Operational capabilities of suppliers can be one of the considerable factors when selecting them to participate in the activities at the front-end of innovation. However, proper understanding of the influence of operational capabilities of suppliers on front-end decision-making in apparel product innovation is still very limited particularly in the context of the Sri Lankan apparel industry. Therefore, this study aims to explore the influence of operational capabilities of suppliers on the front-end decision making in apparel product innovation in Sri Lanka. Design/methodology/approach Both semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey were used as data collection techniques. Six senior managers for the interviews and 60 participants for the questionnaire were randomly selected. All those who participated in interviews and the questionnaire respondents have been involved in the front-end of innovation in different apparel manufacturing organizations in Sri Lanka. Findings The results indicated that the operational capabilities of suppliers had a direct positive influence on front-end decision-making, and the suppliers’ production flexibility was found to be the most influential. Further, the results highlighted that 27.3% of the front-end decisions associated with apparel product innovation in Sri Lanka were influenced by the factors governing operational capabilities of suppliers. Originality/value The findings of the research will be beneficial for both academia and industry. The findings will be useful to extend the current understanding and make a noteworthy contribution to this topic and to provide useful and practical guidance to material suppliers and supporting industries who work with Sri Lankan apparel manufacturing.

Research on User's Need Acquisition Method of Fuzzy Front End for Technology-Driven

2014 ◽  
Vol 933 ◽  
pp. 835-839
Author(s):  
Xiang Dong Li ◽  
Xiao Rong Hao ◽  
Yu Jie Ma ◽  
Lu Kui Shi
Keyword(s):  
Product Innovation ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Market Analysis ◽  
Hybrid Form ◽  
Fuzzy Front End ◽  
Technology Roadmap ◽  
Front End ◽  
Demand Pull ◽  
User Demand ◽  
Acquisition Method

In order to solve the problem of transforming high-quality idea into users' needs, a process model obtaining user demand for fuzzy front end was proposed, which was applied to product innovation design process of pneumatic butterfly valve. This process model covered the key businesses, such as market analysis of the goal, needs analysis, idea analysis, needs evaluation and needs determination, etc. Needs characteristic of user has been discussed in detail. Three kinds of need patterns of demand pull, technology-driven and hybrid form have been analyzed. Pointed out the hierarchical needs structure, function structure diagram and technology roadmap are the key technologies of acquiring user demand.

MARKET ORIENTATION, TECHNOLOGY ORIENTATION AND PRODUCT INNOVATION SUCCESS: INSIGHTS FROM CoPS

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (04) ◽  
pp. 1450020 ◽  
Author(s):  
JING LIU ◽  
JINGQIN SU
Keyword(s):  
Market Orientation ◽  
Product Innovation ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Single Case ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Fuzzy Front End ◽  
Front End ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Technology Orientation

This study explores how market orientation and technology orientation within fuzzy front end phases affect product innovation success in complex products and systems (CoPS) industry research and development (R&D) organisations. A sequential qualitative–quantitative mixed method was used with a single case study and a questionnaire survey. The case study results show mix effects of market orientation and technology orientation on CoPS innovation success within fuzzy front end phases. The empirical test results show that a market orientation facilitates both low-tech and high-tech CoPS innovation success and offer great benefits to mainstream customers. A technology orientation is beneficial to high-tech CoPS innovation success but has no impact on low-tech CoPS innovation success. The results have significant implications for CoPS firm strategies to facilitate product innovations and achieve competitive advantages.

Using Intuition in Fuzzy Front-End Decision-Making: A Conceptual Framework

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 956-972 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Eling ◽  
Abbie Griffin ◽  
Fred Langerak
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Fuzzy Front End ◽  
Front End

scholarly journals New Product Idea Selection in the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation: A Fuzzy Best-Worst Method and Group Decision-Making Process

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 337
Author(s):  
Shui Ming Li ◽  
Felix T. S. Chan ◽  
Yung Po Tsang ◽  
Hoi Yan Lam
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Group Decision Making ◽  
Group Decision ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
New Product ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Fuzzy Front End ◽  
Front End ◽  
Product Idea ◽  
Best Worst Method

New product development (NPD) is essential to most business organizations to create new values and protect existing values for maintaining high profitability and sustainability. However, the success of NPD projects is deemed to be difficult and challenging owing to high organizational complexity, uncertain business environment, and time-critical innovation. Under the smart manufacturing paradigm, NPD is an active research area to establish effective measures through the adoption of systematic approaches so as to facilitate idea management in the fuzzy front end for the product innovation. In this paper, the domain of new product idea selection is focused on and enhanced by means of the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach, in which multiple criteria and sub-criteria can be considered in the selection process. Among a number of MCDM approaches, the fuzzy set theory and best-worst method (BWM) are integrated as the fuzzy BWM in this study to structure the new product idea selection process under a group decision-making process. The hierarchy structure for the new product idea selection is also established to consider the perspectives of finance, marketing, engineering, manufacturing, and sustainability. Overall speaking, this study contributes to the field of NPD through overcoming the new product idea selection problem, while the group decision-making process is incorporated into the fuzzy BWM.

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