NPD Tales

Collaborative tools such as enterprise wikis or more proprietary solutions like MS SharePoint and SamePage have generally focussed on improving internal communication.  In the field of new product development poor communication is a major barrier to effective performance and great benefit can be gained by intelligently deploying such tools.

There is an increasing emphasis from the vendors of these solutions to extend the scope of the tools to include communication with customers.  In the context of flexible product development or Lean Product Development the advantages of gaining continuous rapid feedback are of genuine benefit.

Of course the more customer facing parts of an organisation might (quite rightly) express concern at such close communication with the internal workings of the product development process (and in particular the individuals involved).  Coupled with that, there is the risk that the product development path may become too flexible and result in an unacceptable increase in time to market.

However with careful management the use of collaborative tools to increase customer involvement and feedback can only bring an improvement to the success of new products…

Previous posts have dealt with the concepts behind Lean Product Development and highlighted the most useful tools.  When embarking on any process transformation project it is important to understand that there is no clear set of directions but your roadmap needs to be developed around a framework.  The following points help define the framework around which you can build the map for your lean journey.

Identify champions. The lean journey is not simple or easy.  Established ways of working often need to be challenged.  Enthusiasm needs to be invoked to encourage involvement.  Positive results need to be identified and communicated to convince others.  The whole package requires strong leadership.

Engage others. Identification of waste and the creation of ways to eliminate it are often best achieved in a team environment.  Involvement of other functions is critical.  Strong facilitation is vital

Start small. Identify pilot projects to achieve early success and facilitate the development of methods and ideas before scaling up

Identify waste. Use brainstorming, structured reviews and process mapping to identify the wastes and where they occur.  Waste is often found in specification generation activities (generating useless information), activity driven reviews (waiting) and resource allocation (disruption and distraction) – but you can find it elsewhere!

Eliminate waste. Combine reviewing best practice, applying lean ideas and creative problem solving to devise methods of working that do not generate waste.  Implement and validate these new methods on pilot projects.

Review Frequently. Drive progress and maintain enthusiasm by frequently reviewing progress, defining actions and communicating success

Scale up. Build on pilot project success and devise a clear plan to scale up and roll out – but don’t forget to review progress frequently!

Powerline communication devices just never realised their potential.  Wi-Fi very quickly became so ubiquitous the technology never stood a chance.  However there are a few developments that have hinted at a new dawn.

IEEE are working on a standard for powerline communications up to 100Mbit/s

There is a greater demand for higher communication speeds and/or multiple dedicated networks around the home as streaming audio and video applications become more widespread

Marvell Semiconductor, the highly innovative provider of integrated silicon solutions have acquired DS2 a Spanish developer of chips for powerline communications

‘Now is the time to drive innovation in this space’ said the VP of product development.

My work finds me currently meeting an increasing number of lone inventors.  Whilst most of their needs are very different from established companies with a product development function there are issues that they have in common.

I am frequently presented with a product idea that the inventor is convinced will be successful.  Often they have launched into securing costly patent protection but have no data to back up their projections for the value of their product or idea.  Invariably they will tell me that it is too risky to research the market because it will expose their idea and risk it being copied – this situation is also not uncommon amongst SMEs.

It is important to cultivate relationships with people who can provide you with valuable feedback who you either trust or are not likely to be interested in developing products (preferably both).  Sometimes it’s easier to hide behind the fear of exposure than to put the effort into finding and working with such people.

I had the great pleasure of visiting FabLab Manchester today.  FabLab grew from an idea at MIT and is basically a small scale workshop with an array of computer controlled tools (laser cutters, milling machines, 3D printers).  It’s a creative workspace where people can make just about anything they can think of.

FabLab Manchester is the first of its kind in the UK and offers equipment and expertise for inventors and small companies to do product development and prototyping.

It’s a fantastic place and the people there have great ideas on how they can help people turn their ideas into products and hopefully stimulate more manufacturing industry in the UK.  Check it out, it will be worth the effort.

FabLab Manchester

For two weeks I’ve been enjoying the beautiful island of Menorca and not thinking about innovation or product development.  Apart from one occasion when my iPod shuffle landed on ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ by David Bowie.  I was reminded of the unconventional method by which the track was recorded.

‘What we did on this one was to have everybody play the instruments they didn’t usually play.  Suddenly we had Carlos Alomar, who is rhythm guitarist, on drums and Dennis Davis, on bass.  What was extraordinary was the enthusiasm that came from musicians who weren’t playing their usual instrument.  They became kids discovering rock ‘n’ roll for the first time again.‘

If you took your engineers out of their comfort zone and asked them to perform in a different discipline would you get similarly fresh perspective and new levels of enthusiasm?..

I can’t recommend Tom Fishburne enough.

I was very lucky to be invited to the Merseyside Innovation Awards ceremony last week.  Three very worthy finalists were given the chance to make a presentation about their companies and their innovative offering.

Kleen and Green Motoring Solutions have an exciting oil injection system that can provide increases in fuel efficiency of more than 25% for diesel engines and 50% for petrol engines.  The results they have demonstrated so far are fantastic and although it’s a long haul to developing a mass market product, both the judges and the audience voted them as the winners.

Sign Lights have a range of highly efficient LED alternatives to fluorescent tubes used in illuminated signs.  Running costs are significantly reduced with lower power consumption, longer life and reduced maintenance.  There is no doubt that LEDs are the future of lighting in almost every application and it is encouraging to see a UK based pioneer in this market

BuilderScrap demonstrated a different kind of innovation.  Effectively the proposition is a web based portal for the building trade onto which unwanted building materials can be advertised for other builders to buy (or indeed since the cost of skipping the materials is often so high the ’seller’ may even give the materials away!).  With more than 400 items on offer at this moment and a growing number of users it does seem to be of interest in the industry.

It was a fantastic opportunity to see innovation celebrated in the Merseyside region.  And in addition the audience were treated to a highly entertaining and thought provoking talk from Trevor Baylis exploring how we should prepare the next generation of inventors and innovators (maybe one for another post).

The incandescent light bulb?

The phonograph?

The kinetoscope?

I’d argue his greatest invention was the world’s first research and development centre in 1876.  By recognising that continuous research, development and commercialisation can provide a steady stream of successful innovative products he laid a path for following generations to follow.  From Bell Labs to Xerox PARC to Sony CSL to Microsoft Research and Infinite Loop the most exciting innovations of the 20th and 21st centuries have in some way been inspired by Edison’s work in Menlo Park.

During my time immersed in Six Sigma culture this phrase became a mantra for the Black Belts.  I wouldn’t deny its validity for a second.

What I do challenge is the validity of so many common measures that people apply to product development.

On a strategic level it is valuable to measure how much of your sales are associated with products introduced in the last ‘x’ years.  But that’s not going to provide you with rapid feedback to help you control your NPD activities at a tactical level.

Software engineers are an easy target, the amount of work they produce can be easily measured at a microscopic level (lines of code anyone?), rapid iterations and automated tests add to the picture with bug production rates…

With electronic hardware and mechanical design it’s much harder to quantify how much work has been done.  Cycle times of several weeks make it harder to devise actions based on the performance of prototypes.

From a project management perspective I often found that a business wanted to feel more confident in the timescales and milestones associated with a project so I would focus on accuracy of plan and task durations provided by the engineering team.  But this can feel artificial and removed from the goal of developing successful products.

Some have suggested more subjective measures that tap into a team’s psyche (’How do you feel about…’).  I’m intrigued by this approach and would also suggest that if your aim is to increase customer feedback (both internal and external) then it could be extended to include an ongoing external assessment of a project’s ‘health’ – with potential for providing evidence of problems yet to surface…