NEW product development, PROTOTYPES, INDUSTRIAL design, PRODUCT management, CUSTOMER services, and CONSUMERS

A major challenge in the creation of custom-designed products lies in the elicitation of customer needs. As customers are frequently unable to accurately articulate their needs, designers typically create one or several prototypes, which they then present to the customer. This process, which we call collaborative prototyping, allows both parties to anticipate the outcome of the design process. Prototypes have two advantages: They help the customer to evaluate the unknown customized product, and they guide both parties in the search for the ideal product specification. Collaborative prototyping involves two economic agents, with different information structures and different--and potentially conflicting--objective functions. This raises several interesting questions: how many prototypes should be built, who should pay for them, and how should they and the customized product be priced. We show that, depending on the design problem and the market characteristics, the designer should offer prototypes at a profit, at cost, or even for free. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INDUSTRIAL research, PROTOTYPES, RAPID prototyping, CONTRACTING out, DECISION making, SUPPLIERS, SUPPLY chains, COMMUNICATION, MANUFACTURING processes, PRODUCT management, COMMERCIAL products, and CORE competencies

The article presents a knowledge-based view on conceptual framework for prototyping outsourcing in new product development. It aims to propose a conceptual framework for prototyping outsourcing. It provides guidelines for new product development managers in order to mitigate the risks associated with outsourcing and achieve effective prototyping. Results are discussed which identifies three factors including degree of the prototyping to core competence, prototyping complexity, and supplier's capability of providing knowledge and speed for prototyping and three types of risks including losing control over suppliers, dependency on suppliers, and supplier's lack of capabilities for prototyping outsourcing decisions.

RAPID prototyping, PROTOTYPES, MANUFACTURING processes, INDUSTRIAL design, and PRODUCT management

The emergence of rapid prototyping over the last 7-8 years has had a revolutionary effect in many companies undertaking new product design. Currently, the emphasis has moved from rapid prototyping to rapid tooling. Use of laminated tooling for sheet metal working has already been proved and some work has also been undertaken to build laminated tooling for moulding plastics. Laminated tooling is relatively rare at the moment and as more tools are built using this technique the benefits and limitations will become more clear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTERPERSONAL relations, RAPID prototyping, PRODUCT management, NEW product development, and MANAGEMENT science

Previous research has found that buyer-supplier collaboration in new product development can contribute to project success. Empirical evidence is mixed, however, and the concept of buyer-supplier collaboration is under-developed. This work develops a new construct, buyer-supplier collaboration quality, defined as the extent to which a buyer and supplier exploit shared resources while minimizing waste through interacting during project planning and execution. We use resource dependence theory to formulate interfirm and project-level antecedents of buyer-supplier collaboration quality and argue how it affects new product development project outcomes. Data from an empirical survey of 214 buying organizations validate the measurement structure of the new construct and support its positive associations with design quality and project efficiency. We also find that goal congruence, complementary capabilities and interfirm coordination efforts increase buyer-supplier collaboration quality, while interfirm relationship-specific investment reduces it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NEW product development, RAPID prototyping, INDUSTRIAL research, COMMERCIAL products, and PRODUCT management

This study investigates how the online and offline communication channels jointly influence a firm's new product diffusion. Considering the online and offline word-of-mouth effect, we compare three strategies through which a firm diffuses its product, i.e. offline diffusion strategy, online diffusion strategy and both offline and online diffusion strategy. The findings indicate that product peak sales rate and cumulative sales at peak time would be highest when managers market their products only through the online channel. However, product peak adopting time is not determined by the strategy which the manager takes, but is contingent on the relationship among the online/offline innovation effect, online/offline imitation effect and the proportion of offline consumers. Further parameter analysis provides several managerial insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NEW product development, RAPID prototyping, PRODUCT management, INDUSTRIAL research, PRODUCT design, and MANUFACTURING industries

This article empirically explores the nature of the role of design in the new product development process. The investigation adopts a multiple case study methodology. Data were collected through a six-month interview program carried out with mid-size to large U.K. manufacturing companies. The researchers articulate the scope and detailed nature of actions undertaken by design across all phases of the new product development process. Design functional, integration, and leadership actions are unraveled from the data. A taxonomy characterizing three roles for design in new product development is developed and explained. In the first role, design is explored as a functional specialism. The second categorization develops the role of design as part of a multifunctional team. The third role depicts the designer as process leader. Detailed actions and skills associated with each role are discussed and illustrated. Contextual factors explaining and influencing each design role are unraveled. These are articulated as speed of development process, innovativeness of the product development effort, and use of external design agencies. The implications of these findings for the development of design skills and capabilities are discussed in terms of recruitment, training, and educational policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PERFECT competition, RAPID prototyping, NEW product development, PRODUCT management, INDUSTRIAL research, MARKET equilibrium, and COMPETITION

We analyze endogenous timing in the switching of technology. Each user chooses when to purchase a new product which embodies new technologies characterized by Marshallian externalities. The technological switch occurs when a large number of users purchase new products. Under complete information, multiple market equilibria exist, and one of the equilibria in which technological switching occurs is efficient. However, if we introduce even a small amount of uncertainty, the switch is delayed in the unique equilibrium under perfect competition, resulting in a loss of social welfare. The market power of a monopolistic supplier of new products alleviates this inefficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NEW product development, RAPID prototyping, COMMERCIAL products, INDUSTRIAL research, SMALL business, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, PILOT projects, PRODUCT management, STRATEGIC planning, and MANAGEMENT science

A pilot test is reported on a method for relating the degree of "newness" within a firm's portfolio of products and the firm's economic success. The embodied technology and market applications newness is measured in the sequences of 79 products developed and released by a sample of 10 small technology-based companies, each under $50 million in most recent sales. A two-dimensional "technology newness/market newness" grid is prepared for the product set of each firm, based on the conditions existent at the time of each product's development. Alternative weighting schemes are used to generate a "newness index" for each firm. The degree of "strategic focus" is shown to relate directly to corporate growth in that small firms with more restricted degrees of technological and market change in their successive products outperform companies with wide diversity. The evidence suggests, however, that some product "newness" is better than no "newness," and that more technological change can be effectively employed in small company product strategy than market change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PRODUCT management, RAPID prototyping, ADVERTISING, CONSUMPTION (Economics), BRAND choice, CONSUMER preferences, PRODUCT image, and MARKETING management

Topics covered in this section include: a look at the role of prototyping in managing product development; an examination of the effect of advertising on brand consumption; advice on radically reducing new product development times; a study of product-based competition; and a look at the emerging phenomenon of brand portfolios. One article proposes that interdisciplinary teams should be formed in the early stages of new product development in order to speed up the process. In this way each function is involved simultaneously rather than consecutively. It is argued that this is a prerequisite for prototyping, or more specifically, early-stage modeling which has a number of benefits. It facilitates boundary spanning among disciplines, attention can be focused on usability rather than capability, corporate strategy can be reshaped and decreases in development cycles and manufacturing costs can be achieved. Another article suggests that "intention to buy" is not a good measure of advertising effectiveness for leading brands of consumer goods because they are likely to be in the home already and one cannot buy more until the existing pack has been consumed.

FINITE element method, NEW product development, RAPID prototyping, PRODUCT management, COMPUTER-aided design, and SIMULATION methods & models

Today, the tests of a new product in its conceptual and design stage can be performed by using digital models owning various levels of complexity. The level of complexity depends on the nature and on the accuracy of the tests that have to be performed. Besides, the tests can involve or not the interaction with humans. Particularly, this second aspect must be taken into account when developing the simulation model. In fact, this introduces a different kind of complexity with respect to simulations where humans are not involved. Simulation models used for numerical analyses of the behavior of the product (such as Finite Element Analysis, multi- body analysis, etc.) are typically named Digital Mock- Ups. Instead, simulations that are interactive in their nature, requiring humans- in- the- loop, are named interactive Virtual Prototypes. They cannot be intended as a simple upgrade of a CAD model of a product, but they are instead a combination of functional models, mapped into sensorial terms and then accessed through multisensory and multimodal interfaces. In this paper, the validity of this concept is demonstrated through some case studies where interactive Virtual Prototypes are used to substitute the corresponding physical ones during activities concerning the product conceptualization and design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RAPID prototyping, MANUFACTURING processes, PRODUCT management, ECONOMIC competition, and MARKETPLACES

We present an exploratory investigation of how managers conceptualize and perceive 'marketplace' variables in successful and unsuccessful New Product Development (NPD) projects, and explore the role that marketplace variables play in differentiating between successful and unsuccessful NPD outcomes. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed. Our findings indicate that managers perceive the marketplace in multiple ways during the NPD process and also that differences exist in metric equivalence across successful and unsuccessful NPD projects. Also, although half of the marketplace variables are positively related to NPD success, managers in Finnish technology companies appear to attach higher relative importance to market attractiveness rather than market competitiveness variables. Marketplace variables appear to be less important than in the Korean and Chinese samples, and much more important than in the Canadian sample in the Mishra et al. study (1996), and similarly much more important than in the Cooper study (1979b). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MANAGEMENT science research, RAPID prototyping, PRODUCT management, NEW product development, INDUSTRIAL research, MARKET failure, and INNOVATION management

A newly introduced product or service becomes an innovation after it has been proven in the market. No one likes the fact that market failures of products and services are much more common than commercial successes. A data-driven approach to innovation is proposed. It is a natural extension of the system of customer requirements in terms of their number and type and the ways of collecting and processing them. The ideas introduced in this paper are applicable to the evaluation of the innovativeness of planned introductions of design changes and design of new products and services. In fact, blends of products and services could be the most promising way of bringing innovations to the market. The most important toll gates of innovation are the generation of new ideas and their evaluation. People have limited ability to generate and evaluate a large number of potential innovation alternatives. The proposed approach is intended to evaluate many alternatives from a market perspective. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

RAPID prototyping, PRODUCT management, INDUSTRIAL research, NEW product development, INVENTORY control, BUSINESS logistics, INVENTORY management systems, and MANAGEMENT

Abstract: It is common sense that the premises usually considered in inventory models have little applicability to new product inventory management. This paper develops a first practical approach to deal with this issue: the solution to the (Q, r) inventory model for uniform demand forecasts and lead-times. Based on the fact that the uniform distribution is defined by two parameters that are easy to estimate—maximum and minimum—this paper shows that such a premise may comprise a helpful and accurate decision support tool for managers until they begin to learn about the distribution characteristics of the demand during the lead-time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

TECHNOLOGICAL innovations, RAPID prototyping, NEW product development, PRODUCT management, INDUSTRIAL research, and MANAGEMENT literature

This paper empirically examines the process of acquiring technology from a source, external to the firm, and incorporating it into a new product or operational process under development We refer to this key activity in product and process innovation as external technology integration. This paper develops a conceptual model of external technology integration based on organizational information processing theory and a wide range of technology management literature. Field interviews were conducted to evaluate the validity of the model across diverse settings. Our results indicate general support for the conceptual model. We close with a discussion of the implications of this study for both theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]