The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development

4.8. Beginnings: Analyze the Old and Envision the New

Implementation advocates need to make sure that the pain plus the gain continually remains greater than the perceived cost of change. This requires gathering, analyzing, and disseminating information related to each of the three contributing factors in the change equation.

To begin implementations, organizations should assess their current state (and pain) of NPD. One approach is to review a set of NPD projects. For each project, managers should map the flows for work, decisions, and communications. Analysis can reveal insights about delays, decision-making, the interface with (or lack thereof) customers, and success rates. The purpose is to identify the root cause of the pain. Some areas often influencing benefit accrual from NPD are shared in Figure 4.4.

Understanding best practices is also important. Start by conducting literature research. The chapters in this handbook, especially Chapter 36 describing first results of the PDMA Foundation' Comparative Performance Assessment Study (CPAS), are helpful guides (see also Belliveau et al., 2002). Benchmarking can complement the literature review. Such external comparisons should focus on the how's, why's, and consequences of the decision flow, workflow, and subsystems. Benchmarking a single company, however, may be problematic, because some companies may execute one subprocess better than other sub-processes.

Figure 4-4. SOME KEY AREAS INFLUENCING BENEFIT ACCRUAL.

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