Commercial product development

In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) covers the complete process of bringing a new product to market. New product development is described in the literature as the transformation of a market opportunity into a product available for sale. The product can be tangible (something physical which one can touch) or intangible (like a , experience, or ). A good understanding of customer needs and wants, of the competitive environment and of the nature of the market represents the top required factor for the success of a new product. Cost, time and quality are the main variables that drive customer needs. Aiming at these three variables, companies develop continuous practices and strategies to better satisfy customer requirements and to increase their own market share by a regular development of new products. There are many uncertainties and challenges which companies must face throughout the process. The use of best practices and the elimination of barriers to communication are the main concerns for the management of the NPD process.

The product development process typically consists of several activities that firms employ in the complex process of delivering new products to the market. A process management approach is used to provide a structure for NPD consistency and to enable continuous improvement. Every new product will pass through a series of stages from ideation through design, manufacturing and market introduction. In highly engineered products (aircraft, automotive, machinery) that deals with complexity the NPD process passes through phases, milestones and deliverables management requiring an equally complex organizational system to manage the process. The more complex the product the more complex the NPD process and management system. Complex NPD processes especially in military aircraft projects use an integrated product team approach. The process for managing large sale complex engineering products is much slower (10 plus years) than that deployed for fast moving consumer goods (weeks).

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