Previous

Page - 4

An organization cannot survive without introducing new products. Older products are maturing and others in periods of decline must be replaced. This requires a constant successful introduction of new products and active participation by the operations manager. Successful firms have learned how to turn opportunities into successful products.

How well the development process is managed may well determine not only product success but also the firm's future. A variety of sources contribute to the process. The emphasis can be external (market driven), internal (technology and innovation driven), or a combination of both.

In spite of all of the efforts that go into introducing new products, most do not succeed, for example, TV serials. Computer game software is another product category that sees a lot of winners and losers. Consequently, product development is an ongoing process. This means that the number of products that must be reviewed for production and, in some cases, actually produced, can be substantial. Operations managers must be able to accommodate this volume of new product ideas while keeping current products moving forward.

"Product development time is going to be a great competitive battleground in the 1990s - as intense, I would say, as the revolutionary push for quality in the eighties."

- Allan Gilmour, Executive VP Ford.

This stills remains valid and will remain true for coming decade. We can see this clearly in the case of cell phones, automobiles; everyday new features are added to make others obsolete.

Product life cycles are becoming shorter. This increases the importance of product development. Therefore, faster developers of new products continually gain on slower developers and obtain a competitive advantage. This concept is called time-based competition.

Much of the current competitive battlefield is focused around the speed of product to market. If an organization loses here, catching up in other areas is very difficult. Faster product introduction has a cumulative and positive effect not only in the marketplace but also on innovative design, quality improvements, and cost reduction.

Next

* Contributed by: -
Vidhu Goyal,
Graduate from IMT Ghaziabad, Batch of 2006,
Currently working with Max New York Life in Gurgaon.