Implementation of the phase review process in the new product development: A successful experience

Abstract

Recently, the success in new product development process has become one of the main competitive advantages. Thus, many companies are looking for improving their new product development (NPD) process, to launching products as fast as possible with the required quality and low costs. To achieve such objectives, many organizations have designed phasedreview processes that cut across functional areas of the NPD. One such process with wide acceptance is the Phase Review Process. Phase Reviews are checkpoints that take place at key periods in the product development process to review the opportunity/development effort, assess it from a business and strategic perspective, and determine whether it is worthy to continue the development, redirect or kill it. New product development best practices usually include such processes, however little has been written on how to implement such practices. The available literature reports generic issues and recommendations, without describing a structured approach. This paper describes and analyzes a practical phase review implementation process, pointing out difficulties and stating recommendations to improve and support a successful implementation. The results, compiled after an industrial case study, show clearly the improvements achieved for the proposed implementation.

Keywords