New product development process management and benchmarking with competitors with special reference to Caterpillar 40/50T off-highway trucks in India

One of the Principal determinants of business success is technological innovation. New product development forms an important components of product policy and product management. A progressive firm has to consider new product development as a cardinal element of its product policy. New Product Development is the process adopted by organizations worldwide to develop products and services for customers. Based on the Caterpillar New Product Development Framework and Competitive Benchmarking, the research objectives of the study are confined to evaluate the adherence of process steps in each of the phases of New Product Development framework ; to plan and build prototype and pilots of the new model of trucks and evaluate the performance of the trucks and to carry out Production Studies of the new model of trucks with the competitor machines and generate Production Study data to substantiate the advantages of the new trucks over the competitors. The results of this study determines how systematic adherence of New Product Development process at Caterpillar for the introduction of 40/50 ton rear dump trucks has paved way for the successful production launch of its products and how Caterpillar 40/50T products were subjected to competitive benchmarking with similar class products of competitors and emerged superior over competitors with regard to product performance and reliability. This study is related to the adherence of the New Production Introduction process and the results of the production studies to place the new product in the market. It is based on predetermined objectives and methodology.