NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT (NPD) PROCESS

Audio: New product development (NPD) process

In my previous article, Introduction to the New product development (NPD), I wrote about what is new product development, why it is essential to develop new products, how we know if a product is successful, and what are some of the challenges during product development. I also mentioned the new product development process, but I did not go into detail. In this article, we will do precisely that. We will discuss generic product development process phases and look into each phase in detail.

Introduction to the new product development process

New products are introduced to the market daily. Some products are more successful than others, and some are not successful at all. The reasons for that are numerous, for example:

There is/isn’t a real need on the market for a new product,
The product is/isn’t solving the customer’s problems/needs,
The pain of the problem/need is/isn’t not significant (not high/high enough for customers to pay to solve it),
The product is/isn’t creating more problems than it is solving them,
The product is/isn’t priced according to the market evaluation,
The product is/isn’t introduced to the market at the right time,
The product is/isn’t technologically advanced enough,
The quality of the product is/isn’t sufficient,
The product is/isn’t safe and reliable,
The customers have/haven’t adequate product support, etc.

There is a lot to think about when developing new products, and a large team of various experts is necessary for the product to be successful.

As I said in the introductory article, new product development (NPD) is a set of activities, from identifying customer problems or needs and developing solutions to production, sales, delivery, and retirement of the product. We can think about the product development process as a subtraction process; we start with the wide set of alternatives that we eliminate during the product development process until we are left with only one and the best option.

There are many approaches to product development, and they usually depend on the industry, company, and customer needs. Companies with a high success rate in new product development have a high-quality design process implemented. These processes are implemented in a way that they are aligned with the company’s mission, vision, and values, together with the business strategies. Every company has a development process, but not all companies have a clear and defined process.

Companies with a structured and disciplined high-quality development process have a higher success rate when introducing new products.

Now, imagine that you are working on a new product in a company that does not have a defined product development process. So, the market research was maybe done, and it was communicated to the CEO, who commands his design engineers to develop the new product. The engineers might and might not have insight into all targeted customer requirements.

They are developing the product with little to no understanding of customers and how they perform specific tasks, so the design engineers use their logic to create the product. There are no defined dates for what and when needs to be done, and there is no interconnection with the different functions inside the company. Finally, design engineers are done with the development. No one communicated with production to order the raw materials, there is not enough capacity for the next few months, the quality team wants to stop production due to the missing certificates, etc.

In order to avoid this, new product development processes were invented and implemented. Let us learn more about it!

New product development process

Let us look now into the steps of the new product development process. Usually, companies use different frameworks for their process, but we will investigate the generic new product development. A well-defined development process is useful for quality assurance, coordination between different functions, planning, and identifying opportunities for improvement.

The generic product development process contains seven phases:

Product discovery
Project planning
Product definition
Conceptual design
Detail design
Testing and refinement
Production (Ramp-up)

Of course, depending on the company, more phases can be added (or some of them can be subtracted).

0. Product discovery

The first step, usually called phase zero, is product discovery. Product discovery is a set of actions to determine and understand the customer’s needs for new products and to update existing ones. The goal is to create a list and choose which projects to work on and which ones not. The main reasons for developing new products are market pull, technology push, and product change.

Based on the company’s product portfolio and strategy, the company can decide on four types of projects:

Breakthrough projects strive to bring a new product with new technology to the market or to create completely new and unfamiliar markets. These types of projects require high investment, and they have an increased risk but high revenue potential.
Platform projects strive to develop a new, common platform based on which the family of products can be developed. The new product family would address familiar and existing markets.
Derivative projects extend an existing product or platform to better address familiar markets. They may fill a gap in an existing product line.
Support projects may involve incremental improvements to the existing products to keep the product line current and competitive.

In the product discovery phase, some of the activities that can occur are:

Marketing:

Primary and secondary market research,
Articulate market opportunities,
Define market segments,
List of potential projects.

Design:

Assess new technologies,
Overview of previous project’s learned lessons,
List of potential projects.

All functions:

Decision on with which project to move forward.

1. Project planning

In the project planning phase, the plan for new product development is made in a way that the product is developed in a timely and cost-effective manner. In this step, the commitment to the resources of time, money, and people are made.

Basically, in this step, the required actions to introduce the product to the market will be defined, from concepts, prototypes, and customer testing to final testing, certification, and ramp-up. Furthermore, all the stakeholders will be defined, teams formed, and resources planned. The project plan, of course, will change during the duration of the product development process.

In this step, management of different functions in the company are involved, and they create the plan with the support of their teams.

2. Product definition

In this step, we define all the requirements in a technical description of what needs to be designed. Information from customers, government, standardized bodies, and different company’s functions are gathered to set clear expectations for the new product development. This is a crucial step for the product’s success. The clear and quantitative technical specifications and the plan to verify them should be defined. Knowing what to design before you start and having as much possible information will, in the long run, save a lot of time and the company’s money on the new product development.

In the product definition phase, some of the activities that can occur are:

Marketing:

Voice Of the Customer (VOC),
Qualitative and quantitative market research,
Traceability matrix (customer requirements like aesthetics, ergonomics, functionality, legal, certification, etc.).

Design:

Overview of standard requirements for new products (certificates, specifications, etc.)
Translating requirement specifications into technical specifications.
Traceability matrix, etc.

Other functions:

Manufacturing requirements,
Business requirements,
Legal requirements,
Service requirements, etc.

3. Conceptual design

In the previous step, we spent a tremendous amount of time trying to capture, define and understand the design problem and developed it into various specifications. In this step, we will focus on developing solutions for different product functions. A concept is an idea, when sufficiently developed, used to evaluate physical principles that govern its behavior.

Concepts must be developed enough to evaluate the technologies needed to realize them, basic architecture, and to some degree evaluate manufacturability. The concept can be represented in sketches, virtual prototypes, proof-of-concept prototypes, aesthetic prototypes, calculations, etc.

In the conceptual design phase, some of the activities that can occur are:

Marketing:

Concept testing with customers (VOC),
Capturing feedback from customers,
Refining customers’ needs,

Design:

Concept generation (brainstorming, TRIZ, morphology matrix, etc.)
Industrial design concepts (aesthetics, ergonomics, user interface, etc.)
Building and testing experimental prototypes,
Concept selection.

Manufacturing:

Manufacturing feasibility.

4. Detail design

In this phase, the concepts are refined into quality products. Here we are involved in an iterative process and refinement of the concepts until we have the final product solution. In this step, we will finalize the design of different components, perform calculations, create prototypes and refine our product, create the next iteration, perform calculations, create prototypes, etc. Furthermore, drawings and BOMs are created, the suppliers are selected, the tooling is designed, etc.

In the detail design phase, some of the activities that can occur are:

Marketing:

Develop a marketing plan.

Design:

Define part geometry,
Choose materials,
Calculations, etc.
DFM, DFA, DFC, DFQ, etc.
Creating drawings, BOMs, etc.

Manufacturing:

Design tooling,
Define quality assurance processes,
Begin procurement of long-lead tooling, etc.

5. Testing and refinement

In the testing and refinement phase, the final preparations for the production ramp-up are finalized. The product is tested to see if it performs as intended even under nonideal conditions. Based on the different test results, the design is refined and updated. Furthermore, regulatory approvals (if needed) are obtained. The production is getting ready for the ramp-up phase.

In the testing and refinement phase, some of the activities that can occur are:

Marketing:

Develop promotion and launch materials,
Facilitate field testing.

Design:

Test overall performance, reliability, and durability,
Obtain regulatory approvals,
Assess environmental impact,
Implement design changes.

Manufacturing:

Facilitate supplier ramp-up,
Refine fabrication and assembly processes,
Train workforce,
Refine quality assurance processes.

6. Ramp-up

In the ramp-up phase, the product is made using the intended production system. The final step is to test and eliminate any remaining problems in the production system. Furthermore, the products produced in the ramp-up phase are carefully examined for any remaining issues that should be solved before launch. Sometimes, the product can be supplied to key customers.

In the ramp-up phase, some of the activities that can occur are:

Marketing:

Place early production with key customers.

Design:

Evaluate early production output.

Manufacturing:

Begin full operation of a production system.

Closing words on the new product development process

Developing new products is a difficult, complex, and lengthy process. It involves different company functions to be aligned and harmonized to ensure the product launch is successful. The companies that have a clear new product development process defined are usually more successful than the companies that do not have it.

As a mechanical design engineer, depending on your company structure, you might be involved from the beginning in the new product development process, or you could be excluded to the point where you are included based on the project plan. The amount of work that you will have to do during the development process is tremendous.

From my experience, spend as much time on the product definition phase, review it repeatedly, and request clarification for any requirement that seems underdefined to you. If any requirements are not adequately specified, write an e-mail to a responsible person, explain the issue and consequences with the underdefined specifications, and ask when you can expect this to be clarified. Save the response in your project folder; later on, if you have any problems, you can refer to that e-mail.

Even though new product development is difficult, long, and stressful, I find that at the end of the process, the reward and satisfaction are immeasurable. From nothing but mere requirements on paper, you hold a fully functional product in your hands, and you know that your ingenuity broth it to life is more than satisfying.

Now you have an excellent overview of new product development. However, I suggest you go through the text once more and identify areas you think need more understanding and clarity. Then, once you have identified those areas, start building up your knowledge in those areas.

To make it easier for you to find related posts, check the “Further reading” chapter below. Do you have any questions or need something to be clarified better? Leave a comment below, and I will give my best to adjust the post accordingly.

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