The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development

4.11. Process Ownership

NOTE

Build continuing improvement into the NPD framework to ensure continuous benefit gains.

Ownership of the framework is an important for continuous improvement. Without ownership, improvements will wane, and process use will become inconsistent. Often, an individual manager, assigned as the process manager or coordinator, assumes full responsibility. Yet making an individual solely responsible for improvements can be self-defeating. It allows key functional leaders to get "off the hook." A better approach is to share ownership and responsibility across functions. One way to do this is to assign improvement responsibility to the systems and practices team (see Table 4.1) along with the process manager. The team would report regularly to top management on process metrics, hindrances, and improvement activities. These responsibilities should also be anchored with individual performance evaluation measures.

Table 4.2. POTENTIAL METRICS FOR NPD FRAMEWORK IMPROVEMENT.

Time to react (to knowledge of opportunity or threat) Time to breakeven Slippage from schedule Number of programs completing process (to launch) Capacity (resource use) Financial returns on programs

Project duration as a function of project complexity. $ Investment per subprocess Number of programs stopped Core team turnover Risk Participation in each subprocess (person-yrs per function)