The document discusses product development best practices and assessment. It describes a multi-year effort led by DRM Associates to identify best practices through research and site visits to top companies. These best practices were organized into categories and used to develop an assessment methodology to help companies evaluate their processes, identify gaps, and develop improvement plans aligned with their strategic objectives. The assessment approach provides a framework to benchmark against industry and focus improvement efforts on high-impact areas.

1. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT BEST PRACTICES AND ASSESSMENT Kenneth Crow DRM Associates

2. BEST PRACTICES CATEGORIES TITLE Management leadership (11) Early involvement (9) Product develop-ment teams (12) Organizational environment (11) Process management (11) Process improvement (8) Customer orientation (6) Requirements & speci-fications management (9) Development process integration (7) Supplier/subcontractor integration (7) Transition to produc- tion (6) Configuration management (9) Design assurance (9) Project & resource management (10) Product data (10) Design automation (12) Simulation and analysis (9) Computer-aided manufacturing (6) Support technology (7) Knowledge organi-zation (4) Business & product strategy (5) Product planning & management (11) Technology management (10) Design for manufac-turability (12) Product cost management (12) Robust design (14) Design for testability (14) Design for operation & support (12) Strategy (26) Organization (45) Process (82) Technology (48) ( ) Number of best practices / questions Design Opti-mization (60)

3. BEST PRACTICE SOURCES Workshops & Meetings Telephone Discussions Literature Review BMP Program Conferences Consulting Experience Company Visits Technology Vendors Corporate Handbooks Panel of Experts BEST PRACTICES

5. IMPROVING PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT How well are we doing? What improvements are needed? Where do we start? Should we benchmark? Product planning Integrated product teams Design for manufacturability Project planning Requirements definition Resource management Solids modeling Product data management Configuration management QFD Early involvement Analysis & simulation Early supplier involvement Empowerment Design re-use Top-down design MCAD CAE The Product Development Best Practices and Assessment software and methodology provide an objective way for identifying opportunities and planning improvements

7. DEVELOPING AN IMPROVEMENT PLAN Business Strategy (Strategic Levers) GAP CURRENT SITUATION BEST PRACTICES IMPROVEMENT PLAN Product Development Assessment 3. Develop a plan to close gap 1. Assess current situation 2. Determine priorities based on strategy & Best Practices What’s possible What’s important What the weaknesses are

8. BEST PRACTICES AND ASSESSMENT Best practice statements & assess- ment questions Performance relative to criteria/ question Importance of each criteria to the organization Description of evolution towards best practices to aid evaluation Assessment worksheets provides structure & a framework for feedback

9. BEST PRACTICES AND ASSESSMENT Assessment worksheets for each of the 28 categories Summary performance for the category

10. SUMMARY & GAP ANALYSIS Summary effectiveness Category weight & effectiveness

11. SUMMARY & GAP ANALYSIS Gap analysis identifies high payback areas of improvement

14. TIME-TO-MARKET STRATEGIC LEVERS 2.3 Prioritize development projects 2.7 Don’t overload resources 5.4 Rapidly staff the project according to plan 8.9 Emphasize design re-use to minimize development cost & schedule 11.4 Capture and document requirements and specifications completely 11.8 Tightly manage requirements 12.3 Plan concurrent development 12.4 Tightly synchronize development activities 12.5 Learn to work with partial information 12.7 Prepare to roll out the product early 13.1 Involve subcontractors and suppliers in development 14.2 Plan and coordinate production requirements 14.6 Resolve production problems quickly 17.2 Create a comprehensive, realistic project plan

15. TIME-TO-MARKET STRATEGIC LEVERS 17.3 Obtain personnel's commitment to the project plan 17.4 Communicate project plans and responsibilities 17.4 Identify project staffing requirements 17.6 Plan development resource requirements 17.7 Allocate and manage resources 18.9 Use modular design approach 18.10 Standardize parts and materials 21.13 Balance testing and time-to-market considerations 24.4 Create electronic mock-up of the product 25.2 Simulate & analyze product designs early to minimize late iteration and physical prototypes. 25.5 Tightly integrate analysis & simulation with design 26.1 Use rapid prototyping technologies 27.1 Use collaboration systems to facilitate communication

17. EVALUATION FRAMEWORK Performance Evaluation 0 10 Best Practice Industry Performance Database Company Performance Database to compare company performance against

18. DEVELOPING THE ACTION PLAN 1. Identify performance gaps relative to categories 2. Identify strategy gaps and associated practices 3. Examine individual practices with low performance & high importance in large gap categories & strategies 4. Look for logical relationships & precedence among practices 5. Develop the action plan & gain consensus to the plan Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Plan

19. ACTION / IMPROVEMENT PLAN Based on the gap analysis, put together a plan for improvement

27. CASE STUDY - 1 Need 1 - Project prioritization & resource mgt. Need 2 - Earlier involve- ment of support functions Need 3 - Infrastructure to access product model & PDM System

30. CASE STUDY - 2 Need 2 - Common, defined process Need 3 - PDM System Need 1 -Teams & empowerment