Controlling new product R&D projects

New products are critical to the success of most corporations. But managing the R&D projects that produce new products has proven to be a risky and tricky business. Theorists and practitioners claim that one of the major obstacles to higher new product output is the ‘tight’ control practices found in large corporations. The conventional wisdom argues that, to correct this, firms need to find ways ‘to loosen-up.’ But is that all there is to it? This article presents five findings for effectively controlling new product R&D projects. These findings emerged at the conclusion of an empirical research investigation into the formal and informal control practices that business unit managers use to control various new product R&D situations. The article concludes with several recommendations for those managers who want to control their new product R&D projects better.     

石化装置技术引进时影响物资采购的主要问题及其对策建议

在为石化工程建设引进装置技术进行物资采购时,经常会遇到由于重大装备国产化困难、"包"拆分困难、建设物资独家采购、生产经营所用物资长期依赖独家应等造成的采购价格高昂的问题.在系统地分析了造成这问题的浅层和深层原因之后指出,虽然解决工程建设采购成本高的核心办法是技术自主开发,但从顺利完成物资采购的角度,可采取以下对策:使用商务方法推动国产化,控制采购成本;正确评估国产化的水平和可能性;从治理设计入手治理基于技术的"包"采购.最后强调在技术引进条件下,物采购和技术引进及工程设计密切相关,一定要全盘考虑,通盘策划.     

城市交通基础设施PPP项目产品／服务价格形成机理

论文在分析城市交通基础设施PPP项目经济特性、价格特征及存在问题的基础上,从PPP项目产品或服务价格形成机制、价格形成过程等角度探讨了城市交通基础设施PPP项目产品或服务价格的形成机理,以实现公众、私营投资者和政府三方"三赢"的目标,促进项目的健康发展.     

对成品油销售网络投资项目后评价指标体系构建的探讨

项目后评价是构建高效投资体系的机制性保障,是在工程建设中实践科学发展观的具体体现。中国石油十分重视建设项目后评价工作,已经发布了勘探开发、炼油化工、管道、销售等几类项目的后评价报告编制细则,完成了一批典型项目详细后评价。成品油销售网络通常是指在某一地区范围内由若干加油站和油库所构成的成品油销售系统。成品油销售网络投资项目包括油库项目和加油站项目,具有网络性和系统性的特点,其后评价采用的方法和指标具有显著的行业特点。按照科学性、代表性、完整性和客观性的原则,立足于中国石油已发布的销售项目后评价编制细则,总结提出了中国石油成品油销售网络投资项目后评价指标体系,包括目标实现程度评价、前期工作、建设实施、生产运营、投资效益、影响与持续性6个一级指标,每个一级指标又包含若干二级指标。     

四川省成品油市场研究及预测

四川是我国西部地区经济大省,2000年以来,其成品油需求随着经济的发展而高速增长,消费弹性先升后降,消费强度逐年下降。“十二五”期间,预计全省成品油需求仍将保持较快增长,但增速将逐年降低,2015年成品油消费量或将超过1000万吨;需求柴汽比开始由升转降。从供应格局看,中国石油和中国石化分别是四川成品油市场的主、辅供应商,社会经营单位和地方炼厂起补充作用。从运输方式上看,主要依赖铁路和管道,公路和水路运输比例较小。为了提高未来的成品油供应安全程度,建议四川省积极转变经济增长方式,加强石油储备体系建设,加快铁路网和成品油分支管线网络建设,同时大力发展“油改气”与生物燃料等替代能源。     

The new product matrix

The paper describes the concept, design and experience with a matrix approach to the problems of communication and co-ordination in a multi-discipline R & D activity. It puts forward a systems approach to the problem of overcoming ‘differentiations’ in high technology industry, as opposed to the individual in the role of ‘integrator’.     

成品油销售网络投资项目后评价工作效果与问题评析

中国石油成品油销售网络投资项目后评价（简称＂销售项目后评价＂）工作促进了投资决策科学化、民主化、规范化管理水平的提高,促进了投资管理基础工作上台阶和后评价队伍整体素质的提高,丰富和发展了销售项目后评价的理论和实践。但是,由于开展销售项目后评价的历史较短,这一工作还处于起步阶段,不可避免仍存在一些问题——对后评价工作重要性的认识有待进一步提高;后评价方法体系需要不断完善;后评价成果信息的反馈与应用机制需要进一步健全;销售项目后评价专业人员比较缺乏,整体队伍素质需要进一步提高等。建议创新＂销售项目后评价＂方法体系,完善后评价管理制度,增强其实践指导作用;明确典型和单体项目选择依据和后评价工作经费来源及标准,保证该项工作的有效开展;进一步健全销售项目后评价成果的反馈和扩散机制,充分发挥后评价的作用;加强销售项目后评价专业队伍建设,规范咨询服务。     

Using 'hard' and 'soft' technologies for global new product development

This paper reports on a study of the use of 'hard' and 'soft' technologies as tools for managing global new product teams. 'Hard' technologies consist of electronic mail, teleconferencing, fax, video conferencing, and other electronic means of facilitating communication. 'Soft' technologies, on the other hand, reflect managerial behaviors that are necessary to deal with the social and behavioral aspects of global new product development. Our study suggests that:
The frequency of use of hard technologies is greater for higher versus lower performing global teams.
The set of hard technologies perceived to be important is different for higher versus lower performing global teams.
How well soft technologies are used is greater for higher performing global teams.
Soft technologies are seen as more important than hard technologies.
Implications of these findings for managers and future research are discussed.     

Patterns of international R&D cooperation for new product development: the Olivetti multimedia product

Abstract
The aim of the paper is to identify a number of different patterns of international R&D cooperation during the initial phases of the product development process. This is a case-study of new product development based on the work of the Olivetti Multimedia Laboratory in Pisa, how it set up its own pattern of multinational collaboration in the idea generation and pre-competitive phase; how, in turn, this collaboration led to new R&D collaboration agreements to satisfy specific problem-solving requirements connected with the confirmation of a dominant design, though limited to a certain extent by previous agreements between Olivetti and other firms; the role played by marketing in the choice of alternative solutions. Finally, in the product implementation phase, the emergence of a defined technological paradigm leads to a highly competitive environment, where R&D collaboration is increasingly directed towards multifunctional requirements (R&D, manufacturing, marketing) within a strategic network of alliances that involves large sized companies, start-up firms, industrial and university research units.     

A new lot-sizing heuristic for manufacturing systems with product recovery

We consider a deterministic model of the manufacturing system with product recovery. Two types of policies for the problem had been proposed in literature, namely the (1,R) policy, in which one manufacturing setup is followed by R remanufacturing setups and the (P,1) policy, which has P manufacturing setups, following every remanufacturing setup. Teunter (2004) developed heuristics to evaluate the cost for both policies and recommended choosing the better one among them. In this paper, we develop a new class of general (P,R) policies, where the long-run ratio of the number of manufacturing setups to the number of remanufacturing setups is P/R. Rather than have P manufacturing setups followed by R remanufacturing setups, we interleave (or intersperse) the setups of the manufacturing lots and the remanufacturing lots in such a way that the buildup of the recoverable inventory is minimized. We develop interleaving based (P,R) policy heuristics for the problem. Numerical results presented in the paper show that the proposed heuristic outperforms or performs as well as the best of the Teunter (2004) policies for all the problems tested.     

Leveraging on systemic learning to manage the early phases of product innovation projects

A number of studies have pointed out the importance of the early phases of new product development projects. In fact, these phases (addressed in the literature with different names, such as pre-project activities, concept generation, product planning, idea generation, investigation, product definition) are concerned with a number of critical decisions that have great impact on the performance of product development. Any fault occurring in these early phases in understanding the market needs, in choosing the product architecture and technology and in defining the product specifications would eventually deteriorate the innovation process, since adjustments in later stages imply reworks that are costly and time consuming. Although the relevance of early project phases has been empirically verified in the literature, the mechanisms that allow these phases to be properly managed are still largely unexplored. This paper investigates the articulated and coherent set of methods, organizational mechanisms and behavioural patterns that successful companies adopt to manage concept generation and product planning. Inferences are based on a field research concerning 19 in-depth case studies of Italian and Swedish companies in the vehicles, helicopters and white goods industries. The paper supports findings of other studies concerning the importance of teamworking and communication. However, teamworking emerges as a necessary, but not a sufficient mechanism. Systemic learning from past experiences is the real keystone toward an effective management of the early phases of product development processes.     

Involving purchasing in new product development

Purchasing is evolving into a strategic business activity and thus also a potential contributor to the successful development of new products. However, the literature on the involvement of purchasing in new product development (NPD) is sorely lacking. We conducted an exploratory study to investigate purchasing's involvement in NPD, the drivers of this involvement and the influence on new product success. We conducted telephone interviews with purchasing and NPD managers from 43 firms. The results show that firms differ in the extent to which they involve purchasing in NPD and that higher involvement has a positive effect on NPD performance. R&D managers can use the results to design a more effective purchasing–R&D interface and increase the success of NPD.     

The new product development process: part 2. Improving the process of new product development

This paper describes work on evaluating and improving the New Product Development Process (NPDP). The relevant results of a survey of current practice in NPDP within 149 companies are presented. The development and experimental application, within a commercial company, of a methodology for evaluating and improving the NPDP is also described.     

Customer interactivity and new product performance: Moderating effects of product newness and product embeddedness

Understanding customer needs which drive significant product innovation is particularly challenging for new product development (NPD) organizations. Research has addressed how organizations benefit from interacting with customers, but more conceptualization is needed into the dimensions of the customer interaction process. In a business-to-business (B2B) setting, customer interactivity is conceptualized as a multi-dimensional construct consisting of bidirectional communications, participation, and joint problem solving during NPD projects. Drawing upon organizational information processing theory, customer interactivity is hypothesized to be positively related to customer information quality when developing highly innovative products, but not when developing modifications or extensions of existing products. Another condition affecting this relationship studied is the embeddedness of the new product in the customer's business environment. Customer interactivity is hypothesized to be positively related to information quality for highly embedded product, but not for low embedded product. Results from a sample of NPD organizations in several B2B industries support these hypotheses. The study contributes to the marketing literature and practice by identifying important dimensions of the customer interaction process which lead to more proactive organizations, and identifying two moderating conditions of the customer interactivity and NPD performance relationship.     

Navigating the new product development process

The quest for success in new product development (NPD) requires management to navigate complex processes. This study presents empirical evidence of the evaluative criteria used by well-experienced NPD managers from the UK and the Netherlands to control performance at different gates of the NPD process. The emerging usage patterns suggest that these criteria are aligned to the specific requirements of each stage in the process. This allows for detection of problems and initiation of adjustments that increase the chance for overall success of the new product. Based on these findings, recommendations are provided for managers to safeguard strategically the performance of their NPD efforts.     

Managing the search for new product concepts: a strategic approach

Abstract
The authors point out that there is little in the academic literature about the way ideas for new products emerge and how the emergence is managed. They have identified the main top management problem as the strategic one of achieving the right balance between resources put into new product search and those put into current business operations. To obtain more information on good and bad practice in this area they have investigated how a specially selected sample of small to medium-sized Canadian technological companies actually carry out new product search.
The research method was to ascertain how far corporate goals, organization structures and corporate values affected the effectiveness of new product search. Unstructured interviews were conducted with senior staff in the companies, during which information was sought about company goals, innovation strategy, internal relationships and how these impinged on the genesis of 35 projects.
The authors found an important corporate goal spurring innovation was growth (or survival), to be achieved by using new products to dominate their markets. R&D was oriented to achieving a technical edge, though not necessarily a radical breakthrough in market driven ways. Few had effective formal strategic plans for new product search. On the whole, top managements emphasized the importance of individual initiative and commitment to get results and the necessity of open communication throughout the organization.
Overall, this research reveals once more that any organization that wishes to pursue a strategy of product innovation has to build a climate which explicitly favours that strategy. Corporate strategy, itself, has a major influence on that climate. New product search requires resources and a place in the strategic plan but the extent to which it can be formalized is limited. It must be possible for new ideas, wherever generated, to emerge and gather momentum informally.