Literature Survey Skills

Answer ONE question only. Please state clearly which question you are answering!

Whichever question you choose, you should support your descriptions and arguments with references to relevant literature.

1. You have been appointed as the product design director for a medium sized company making a relatively complex electro-mechanical product for the consumer market. (The product probably has hundreds of components, suppliers make some of the sub-assemblies, but most parts are made and assembled in-house.  The electronic control module is designed and made in-house and the control software is also written in-house.  Currently New Product Introduction is badly organised, projects are often late and over budget, there is a lot of wasted time waiting for information and decisions)

Discuss how you would attempt to organise and manage the whole process from Concept to Delivery as effectively as possible.  You might consider whether you would use lean approaches and/or project management tools and techniques.  Would you introduce a structured new product introduction process such as the stage-gate process?  Are there any IT systems that might help?

Describe in reasonable detail the types of work that the members of your design to manufacture team would need to undertake.

In all cases attempt to justify the decisions and choices you make about the tools and techniques you select, in other words explain why you would make each decision and what benefits you expect from using each approach.

2. Lean thinking and good project management both appear to make a contribution to more effective delivery of new products to customers. Use relevant literature to compare and contrast the two approaches.  Why are both lean thinking and project management necessary for a successful new product introduction project?

3. Use your literature survey skills to find a case study about how an individual or company brought a new product to market, for example, Sir James Dyson and his Dual Cyclone vacuum cleaner.

•  Briefly describe the stages in bringing the product to market.
•  How effective was the new product introduction process? (You might choose to discuss whether a structured new product introduction process such as the stage-gate process was used, whether there was any use of lean approaches and so on.)
•  What do you believe were the critical success factors in bringing the product to market successfully and protecting the original idea from competitors?
•  What areas could have been improved and how?