Midco Pharmaceuticals is a leading manufacturer of store brand over-the-counter drugs and vitamins sold under retailers' names. It has a portfolio of 350 products and introduces around 46 new products yearly. The new product development process takes too long, averaging 380 days. Key issues include category managers not always attending meetings, lack of communication between departments, and stability testing taking 70 days. Changes are needed like appointing a leader for NPD, making attendance mandatory, optimizing communication, and reducing stability testing time to improve Midco's financial performance by saving $15,000 daily from reduced delays.

1. Midco Pharmaceuticals
Group 4

2. Introduction
➔ Leading manufacturer of store brand over-the-counter OTC drugs & vitamins.
➔ Sold under Retailer’s name.
➔ Similar efficiency as brand named products.
➔ Portfolio of 350 products.
➔ Introduce an average of 46 new products every year.
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3. NPD Process at Midco
➔ Midco divides its product line to eight categories.
➔ Each Category is managed by a Category Manager (CM)
➔ Eight Category Manager together form NPC
➔ Any CM can present new product proposal
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6. NPD Organization
➔ New Product identification has been assigned.
➔ Formal process coordination takes place in NPC meeting which are attended by all category
managers.
➔ A secretary is responsible for taking minutes.
➔ Division of time in 4-5 hrs.
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8. Key Issues
➔ CM’s attendance is not mandatory & instead surrogates attend meeting
➔ Minutes delivered 2 days before next meeting
➔ Lack of presence of CM in meeting delays process 7 days for his approval
➔ Average product development time for process is 380 days
➔ Stability test last for 70 days which makes delay in process
➔ Every day delay in product development cost Midco $15,000 in lost contribution margin
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9. Solutions
➔ Appoint a leader to lead NPD
➔ Attendance should be mandatory for CM
➔ Meeting should clearly state the purpose and required attendees
➔ Formula stability time taken can be reduced to 2 weeks
➔ Communication between Departments should be optimal
➔ NPD-employees should be involved with their respective department to set target dates
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10. Project Management
➔ Project management involves the planning and organization of a company's resources to move a
specific task, event, or duty towards completion.
➔ The purpose of project management is to plan and manage a project to successfully complete its
listed goals and deliverables.
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11. Critical Path Method
● Critical path in project management refers to the sequence of tasks essential to your project’s
success.
● It’s the longest series of tasks.
How to calculate critical path?
1. Identify all tasks and note their durations.
2. Note the relationships between those tasks.
3. Identify all possible paths.
4. Longest path is critical path.
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13. Float
Total float or total slack is the amount of time that you can delay any given activity without delaying the
project end date. There's two ways to calculate this:
1. Difference between Late Finish (LF) and Early Finish (EF)
2. Difference between Late Start (LS) and Early Start (ES)
Any activity that has total float of zero will form the critical path.
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14. 1. Why does the new-product development process at Midco take so long?
2. What changes should be implemented in Midco’s new-product development process to improve its
financial performance?
Solution: The reason for this delay could be that the organization seems to be working in an uncoordinated
manner, especially NPD. The survey strongly suggests that there is a lack of accountability in meeting target
dates.
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15. Thank You
Vrutik Sanghani (AU2114018)
Bhoomika Wassista (AU2114014)
Dilsha Lalwani (AU2114011)
Jacob Joute (AU2114027)
Mauli Shah (AU2114009)
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