Product Development Dilemmas Flashcards
Utterback and Abernathy talks about three phases, witch are they?
Fluid: Uncertainty about the market, firms experiment with different product designs
Transition: Dominant Design emerges. Lot of process design.
Specific: Focus on improvements on design and manufacturing efficiency
What is a dominant design?
The design that wins on the market, meets the desire of most part of the market
What is the sailing ship effect?
The sailing ship effect is a phenomenon by which the introduction of a new technology to a market accelerates the innovation of an incumbent technology. E.g. sailing ship/steam boat, analog camera/digital camera
When you are threatened, you can always squeeze out something more
Which are the four types of development projects?
Research or advanced development projects – inventing new science and capturing new know-how (creation of new knowledge - precursor to commercial development)
Breakthrough development projects – the first generation of an entirely new product or process (family) (Helt nytt)
Platform or generational development projects – a platform or core development project
Derivative development projects – “incremental” development projects (små förändringar, förbättringar)
Technology sourcing strategies
- Internal R&D
- Joint ventures
- Scanning
- Technology purchasing
- Acquisitions
Which are the types of research?
- Basic research, understand a topic/field better without commercial application in mind
- Applied research, aims at increasing understanding of a topic field to meet a specific need
Which are the types of development projects?
- Research or advanced development projects – inventing new science and capturing new know-how (creation of new knowledge - precursor to commercial development)
- Breakthrough development projects – the first generation of an entirely new product or process (family) (Helt nytt)
- Platform or generational development projects – a platform or core development project
- Derivative development projects – “incremental” development projects (små förändringar, förbättringar)
Which are the critical driving forces for flexibility and speed?
- R&D lead times are becoming longer/shorter
- Decreasing product life cycles
- Increased R&D costs
- Rapid technology change
- More complex products
- Global/harder competition
- Demanding market
Why should you focus on a short time to market?
- Enjoy a longer life of your product
- Faster payback time
- Faster react to evolving market demands
- Faster use of emerging new technologies
- Set the initial price
- Enjoy scale effects
- Establish industry standards
Why do you sometimes want to competitor to be first on the market?
- Maybe no complementary products out there (network effects)
- Establish supply chains
- Better let someone else do the job
What is the problems in new product development?
- The moving target
- Mismatches between functions
- Lack of product distinctiveness
- Unexpected technical problems
- Problem solving delays
- Unresolved policy issues
What is a product family?
Group of related products. Share features, components, subsystems. Satisfy a variety of markets.
What is a product platform?
Set of features, components, subsystems that remains constant from product to product.
What is a derivative?
Products derived from the product platform through:
- Additional, removal, substitution of one or more modules (module-based product family)
- Scaling or “stretching” the platform in one or more dimensions (scale-based product family)
What is cannibalization?
When a firm has multiple products that compete with each other in the same market.
