Impediments to Timely Delivery of New Products at an Industrial Products Firm

To identify and discuss sources of delay in the new product development process at an industrial products firm, data were collected during 11 bi-weekly project review meetings at which 42 different projects were discussed. The highest priority projects were designs for a new venture into European markets. It was suggested that manager selection, vendor monitoring, attention to physical engineering design, and bureaucratic checkpoints contribute more to project delays than do most other internal problems such as resource bottlenecks and miscommunications. A challenging trade-off existed between a well-established sign-off procedure and a less-structured but potentially more timely product development policy. In the ordinary least squares results, the largest proportion of sum of squares was attributable to the manager variable. Getting new products to market faster than competitors is a worrisome problem for many American manufacturers. The producer first on the scene may have an advantage obtaining and keeping market share. Furthermore, shortened product life cycles necessitate more new product introductions in order to keep the product pipeline filled. Firms that are able to compress the time it takes from conceptualizing a new product to distributing it will have a scant advantage within their industries. This article identifies and discusses impediments to the timely delivery of new products at an industrial products firm. It provides an objective indication of those technological and managerial characteristics that present obstacles to timely new product development and those that do not. This information is vital for firms attempting to reduce their product development lead times and, thereby, compete more effectively in global markets. An early bibliography dealing with product development was prepared by Udell and O'Neill (1). Clark et al. (2) report an extensive literature survey by Shirley 3!. Current examination of popular journals such as Harvard Business Review and Fortune demonstrate considerable interest in the topic of time-based product development from both managerial and academic perspectives. Cooper (4) synthesized much of the work done through 1983 and emphasized the need for good market research, even for industrial products, and the necessity of open and informal communication. He also developed a sequential framework of new product development that conflicts with contemporary ideas in this area. New product introduction requires accurate knowledge of resources and a high degree of co-ordination (5). Too much paper-chasing and too many "I'II-get-back-to-yous" further expand an already timeconsuming process. Functional organization, information flow, and timeliness of communication can have pronounced effect on the decision-making process (6). A parallel design process will assist managing on time as well as on cost (7). Not surprisingly, much of the current literature has examined Japanese automobile development. A comparison of US, Japanese and European auto makers by Clark et al. 2! attempts to separate elements that are unique to the Japanese culture from those that are not. Their approach is scientific rather than subjective and supports the conventional wisdom that Japanese designers do indeed spend significantly less time on design projects. Supplier relationships, overlap of work, non-specialized design engineers, and a project manager who champions the cause are reported to contribute to This article is © Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here (http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/). Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited. 2 | P a g e the Japanese advantage S1. The work by Clark and his colleagues precedes and is referenced in the comprehensive study of the automobile industry by smack et al. (9). The concept of overlapped activities is well-described by Takeuchi and Nonaka (10) as analogous to a rugby teamworking in harmony to move the ball downfield. This analogy is reiterated by Uttal (11). Supplier relationships also contribute to shortened development lead times (5). Working with suppliers early on transfers some of the engineering effort to them and guarantees on-time delivery of new parts (12), (13). Stanford University (14), Harvard University (2) and Boston University (15) have directed considerable effort towards researching new product development.