We have a process for new product development but it seems to slow us down

This is a common refrain from leaders in capital equipment organizations.  They likely inherited an existing business process that dictates the cross functional deliverables required to progress a new product development program from one step or phase to another.  These business processes are often refered to as a Product Development Process (PDP) or Product Lifecycle Process (PLC).

These business processes are often painfully serial in nature.  At any stage in the development process there is a list of deliverables, typically a document, for each cross functional department that must be completed before the management team will agree to progress the program from one stage to the next.

A generic example of such a list of deliverables, aligned with their respective stages is shown below:  

The above example lists just a few of the high-level deliverables per stage, it is not intended to be complete.  At first glance it seems like a reasonable list.  For example:  kicking off an engineering design activity without a completed market requirements document (MRD) doesn’t make sense, does it?  The engineers should wait until the marketing team has completed the necessary steps that result in an MRD like a voice of customer study, a competitive analysis, and a value-based pricing exercise. 

The deliverables required at any stage have likely evolved and expanded over time, sometimes based on the result of a previous development program.  A negative result such as a very late to market product introduction (“we missed this year’s trade show because beta test took longer than planned”) or a program stuck for too long in the technical risk retirement stage (“engineering thinks it’ll take another 6 months to demonstrate TAKT time”) often drives organizations to pull deliverables from the right to left in the above chart in a perceived action to reduce risk of failure the next time.

Decisions to pull in deliverables to an earlier stage often result in PDP teams reverting to a checklist approach for measuring progress.  The horizon line becomes the next gate review and the big picture becomes lost in stop light colored spreadsheets and presentations to management.  

While safe and accommodating to those in the organization who are risk averse there are approaches that can both balance and manage risk while also moving aggressively in a non-serial manner.  CapSure Solutions can help capital equipment organizations accelerate development programs while in parallel refining and adapting the existing business processes to enable a “move fast and CapSure opportunity” culture.