Product Development Dilemmas Flashcards
Explain the phases in product development (fluid & dominant). When and how does it emerge?
Fluid phase: Uncertainty about technology & its market, firms experiment with different product designs
Dominant design phase: Typically coincides with peak in number of competing firms, once it has emerged it signals to producers and consumers “must have” features. Firms shift focus on incremental design improvements and manufacturing efficiency.
Explain development and the different kinds of research
• Basic research: aims at increasing understanding of
a topic or field without an immediate commercial
application in mind.
• Applied research: aims at increasing understanding
of a topic or field to meet a specific need.
• Development: refers to activities that apply
knowledge to produce useful devices,
materials, or processes.
Explain the different types of R&D projects
• Research or advanced development projects
inventing new science
• Breakthrough development projects
the first generation of an entirely new product/process (family)
• Platform or generational development projects
a platform/core development project
• Derivative development projects
“incremental” development projects
What are some critical driving forces that require capabilities in speed & flexibility?
- R&D led times are becoming shorter
- Shrinking Product life-cycles
- Increased R&D cost
- Diverse and rapidly changing technologies
- The products are becoming more and more complex
- Intense international competition
- Fragmented, demanding markets
Needed capabilities:
Speed and Flexibility
What are problems that exist in new product/process development?
1) The moving targets
companies misses a shifting technology or market, resulting in a mismatch.
2) Mismatch between functions
different views on the problem/project/product across the organization
3) Lack of Product Distinctiveness
the product end up not as unique or defensible as the organization anticipated
4) Unexpected technical problems
overestimates of the company’s technical capabilities or simply to its lack of depth and resources.
5) Problem-solving delays
every new product development activity involves uncertainty and enough resources need to be allocated to handle these uncertainties.
6) Unresolved policy issues
major policy decisions need to be articulated clearly and shared early in the process/project.
Explain the Development Strategy Framework
Prupose of framework
1) Define create, select projects that yield superior products/process
2) Integrate and coordinate functional/technical tasks and organisational units involved in development.
3) Manage development efforts to achieve business objectives as effectively and effiecently as possible.
4) Create and improve capabilities needed to make development a competetive advantage.
What is product portfolio management? What are the reasons for using it and why is it important? What are the objectives of the portfolio?
What it is:
- PPM is a dynamic decision process where the list of active and upcoming R&D projects are constantly revised.
- Consists of two important processes: The seleciton and review process.
Reasons:
- It’s a way to handle the resources and choose the ‘right’ projects for the future.
- It’s a way to operationalize the business strategy.
Why it’s important:
- To find the right balance between projects & investments
- Internal communication of project priorities
- Provides greater objectivity in project selection
Overall objectives:
- Maximize the value of the portfolio
- Achieving a balanced portfolio
- A strong link to strategy
What are some formal methods for project selection?
What three areas are of interest in technology planning and strategy?
Focus
Define capabilities which are needed to achieve a competetive advantage.
Source
Determine how technical capabilities should be acquired.
Timing & requence of implementation
When to develop & introduce technology into the market.
What different technology sourcing strategies are there?
R&D
Internally develop knowledge, most common way to source technology
Technology purchasing
One can buy the patent or IPR (intellectual property rights) from a company
Acqusition
To buy the whole company that holds technology or IPR
Joint ventures & alliances
Collaborate with other firms
Scanning
Scan the technology field through: fairs, analyze competitors products
What are some advantages of shorter time-to-market?
Shorter time to market can lead to:
- Longer product life
- Fast pay-back time
- Faster reaction to evolving market demands
- Faster use of emerging technologies
- Set a higher market price
- Enjoy scale effects
- Establish industry standards
What is technology roadmapping (TR)? What are some types of roadmaps that exist?
What it is
- Technology roadmapping is a technique used to support strategic and long-range planning.
- The approach provides a structured (and often graphical) means for exploring and communicating the relationships between evolving and developing markets, products and technologies over time
Benefits
It brings many different people from the business together to share infomation and perspectives. Many iterations may be required before full benefits are derived.
Types
- Product planning: most common TR, relation to the insertion of technology into manufactured products.
- _Service/capability planning:_Suited to service-based firms focusing on how technology supports organisational capabilities.
What is an Aggregate Project plan?
Purpose
To ensure that the collective set of projects will accomplish…:
- development goals
- company objectives
- build organizational capabilities for ongoing development success
For management this involves
Management must decide (through project selection)…:
- set of projects to be added to the “active list”
- scope and obective of projects
- timeframe for selected projects (start & end)
- what resources are needed and when they are needed for projects
- how to collectively accomplish the firm’s strategy.
