New Product Development

Abstract

New product development is a multi-stage process. Many different models with a varying number of stages have been proposed in the literature. We briefly review these models and propose a new model that is better suited to decision making regarding product performance and specification. In this chapter we start with a discussion of products and product life cycle in order to set the background for the later sections of the chapter. The outline of the chapter is as follows. In Section 2.2 we look at product classification and decomposition. Section 2.3 deals with product life and product life cycle. Section 2.4 gives an overview of new product development and reviews some of the models proposed in the literature. Section 2.5 deals with the concepts and activities in the different phases of the five-phase product life cycle indicated in Figure 1.1. This sets the background for a new model that is appropriate for deciding on performance and specification in the context of new product development. Section 2.6 deals with this new model.