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Question 1

Factory Cost

Answer 1

The cost of producing the product in the production location including materials, labor and overhead.

Question 2

Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA)

Answer 2

A technique used at the development stage to determine the different ways in which a product may fail, and evaluating the consequences of each type of failure.

Question 3

Failure Rate

Answer 3

The percentage of a firm’s new products that make it to full market commercialization, but which fail to achieve the objectives set for them.

Question 4

Feasibility Activity

Answer 4

The set of product development tasks in which major unknowns are examined to produce knowledge about how to resolve or overcome them or to clarify the nature of any limitations. Sometimes called exploratory investigations.

Question 5

Feasibility Determination

Answer 5

The set of product development tasks in which major unknowns (technical or market) are examined to produce knowledge about how to resolve or overcome them or to clarify the nature of any limitations. Sometimes called exploratory investigation.

Question 6

Feature

Answer 6

The solution to a consumer need or problem. Features provide benefits to consumers. The handle (feature) allows a laptop computer to be carried easily (benefit). Usually any one of several different features will be chosen to meet a customer need. For example, a carrying case with shoulder straps is another feature that allows a laptop computer to be carried easily.

Question 7

Feature Creep

Answer 7

The tendency for designers or engineers to add more capability, functions and features to a product as development proceeds than were originally intended. These additions frequently cause schedule slip, development cost increases, and product cost increases.

Question 8

Feature Roadmap

Answer 8

The evolution over time of the performance attributes associated with a product. Defines the specific features associated with each iteration/generation of a product over its lifetime, grouped into releases (sets of features that are commercialized). See also, “Product Life-Cycle Management” and “Cadence Plans”.

Question 9

Field Testing

Answer 9

Product use testing with users from the target market in the actual context in which the product will be used.

Question 10

Financial Success

Answer 10

The extent to which a new product meets its profit, margin, and return on investment goals.

Question 11

Firefighting

Answer 11

An unplanned diversion of scarce resources, and the reassignment of some of them to fix problems discovered late in a product’s development cycle (See Repenning, JPIM, September 2001).

Question 12

Firm-Level Success

Answer 12

The aggregate impact of the firm’s proficiency at developing and commercializing new products. Several different specific measures may be used to estimate performance. (See Chapter 36 in The PDMA HandBook 2nd Edition).

Question 13

First-to-Market

Answer 13

The first product to create a new product category or a substantial subdivision of a category.

Question 14

Flexible Gate

Answer 14

A permissive or permeable gate in a Stage-Gate™ process that is l ss rigid than the traditional “go-stop-recycle” gate. Flexible gates are useful in shortening time-to-market. A permissive gate is one where the next stage is authorized although some work in the almost-completed stage has not yet been finished. A permeable gate is one where some work in a subsequent stage is authorized before a substantial amount of work in the prior stage is completed. (Robert G. Cooper, JPIM, 1994)

Question 15

Focus Groups

Answer 15

A qualitative market research technique where 8 to 12 market participants are gathered in one room for a discussion under the leadership of a trained moderator. Discussion focuses on a consumer problem, product, or potential solution to a problem. The results of these discussions are not projectable to the general market.

Question 16

Forecast

Answer 16

A prediction, over some defined time, of the success or failure of implementing a business plan’s decisions derived from an existing strategy. (See Chapter 23 of The PDMA HandBook 2nd Edition.)

Question 17

Function

Answer 17

(1) An abstracted description of work that a product must perform to meet customer needs. A function is something the product or service must do. (2) Term describing an internal group within which resides a basic business capability such as engineering.

Question 18

Functional Elements

Answer 18

The individual operations that a product performs. These elements are often used to describe a product schematically.

Question 19

Functional Pipeline Management

Answer 19

Optimizing the flow of projects through all functional areas in the context of the company’s priorities.

Question 20

Functional Reviews

Answer 20

A technical evaluation of the product and the development process from a functional perspective (such as mechanical engineering or manufacturing), in which a group of experts and peers review the product design in detail to identify weaknesses, incorporate lessons learned from past products, and make decisions about the direction of the design going forward. The technical community may perform a single review that evaluates the design from all perspectives, or individual functional departments may conduct independent reviews.

Question 21

Functional Schematic

Answer 21

A schematic drawing that is made up of all of the functional elements in a product. It shows the product’s functions as well as how material, energy, and signal flow through the product.

Question 22

Functional Testing

Answer 22

Testing either an element of or the complete product to determine whether it will function as planned and as actually used when sold.

Question 23

Fuzzy Front End

Answer 23

The messy “getting started” period of product development, when the product concept is still very fuzzy. Preceding the more formal product development process, it generally consists of three tasks: strategic planning, concept generation, and, especially, pre-technical evaluation. These activities are often chaotic, unpredictable, and unstructured. In comparison, the subsequent new product development process is typically structured, predictable, and formal, with prescribed sets of activities, questions to be answered, and decisions to be made. (See Chapter 6 of The PDMA HandBook 2nd Edition.)

Question 24

Fuzzy Gates

Answer 24

Fuzzy gates are conditional or situational, rather than full “go” decisions. Their purpose is to try to balance timely decisions and risk management. Conditional go decisions are “go,” subject to a task being successfully completed by a future, but specified, date. Situational gates have some criteria that must be met for all projects, and others that are only required for some projects. For example, a new-to-the world product may have distribution feasibility criteria that a line extension will not have. (R.G. Cooper, JPIM, 1994) (See also Flexible Gates)

Question 25

Full scale test

Answer 25

Actually selling the product in a selective or intensive distribution environment