International Journal of Innovation Management
V ol.10,No.3(Sept.2006)pp.237–269
©Imperial College Press
DETERMINANTS OF AN EFFECTIVE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS:TOWARDS A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR PROCESS INDUSTRY
青薯9号DIANA CHRONÉER∗and KRISTINA LAURELL-STENLUND
Industrial Organization,LuleåUniversity of Technology
如何哄人5-97187,Luleå,Sweden
∗Diana.Chroneer@ltu.
Received31January2005
Revid17October2005have的过去式和过去分词
Accepted20October2005
Organisation and management of the product development process have been an issue in
both academia and industry for over three decades.The literature on product development
is growing,but Process Industry is often lacking in the discussions.Therefore,this paper
focus on linking the determinants of an effective product development process to Process
Industry and the implication this may have on a traditionally very process-oriented industry
by nature.Further,the paper organis the burgeoning product development literature into
three main determinants:innovation type,technology strategy and organisational aspect.
The lection of determinants to the conceptual framework,adjusting for Process Indus-
try origins in previous written rearch material and our own empirical work of product
development in Process Industry,is briefly prented at the beginning of the paper.Our
literature review focus on the product development process and builds the framework
of our conceptual model detailing the elements of intra-and inter-firm process in the
product development process of the Process Industry.Our purpo is to give an incread
understanding of the changed innovation pattern in Process Industry and its implication on
activities concerning organisation and management of the product development process.
Keywords:Product development process;innovation type;technology strategy;organisa-
tional aspect;process industry.
Introduction
What makes a product development process in the Process Industry effective today? In other words,how can companies in the Process Industry increa efficiency by an effective product development process?An effective product development process is a way of organising and managing activities,resulting in either the production of
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238 D.Chronéer&K.Laurell-Stenlund甜鸡蛋汤
a given output with fewer lower costs(efficiency),or the production of better or new products(effectiveness).
In this paper,our common definition of product development can be described as the process that identifies a market opportunity and transforms it into a product available for sales(Krishnan and Ulrich,2001).The definition of Process Industry is a type of business focusing on material/metallurgical/chemical properties and production process in product development ,product development and process development are cloly interrelated.It can also be described as follows:“Process Industry is Production Industry using(raw)materials to manufacture non-asmbled products in a production process where the(raw)materials are process in a production plant where different unit operations often take place in afluid form and the different process are connected in a continuousflow”(Lager,2002, p.108).
The main aim of this paper is to increa the understanding of product devel-opment in the Process Industry and to organi determinants of effective product development in a conceptual model adjust
ed to the Process Industry.This is achieved by illustrating the context of the Process Industry and state of the art of rearch con-cerning organisation and management of the product development process.How-ever,existing theory on product development is vast.Therefore,to sharpen our understanding of the literature,its organisation into areas of factors that may affect the creation of the product development process is uful.During the last three decades academic rearchers have shown an increasing interest in investigating the organisation of product ,activities of the product development process,collaboration and the role of networks.Managing the product develop-ment process is also a central theme in management rearch.The organisation and management of the product development process have different names within the literature:new product development(NPD)(Hart and Baker,1996),simultaneous engineering(SE),concurrent engineering(CE)(Andrean and Hein,1987)and integrated product development(IPD)(Ulrich and Eppinger,1995).
But,what creates an effective product development process in the Process Indus-try?The Process Industry has often been regarded as a mature industry,where both the products and production process are stable.The characteristics of the Process Industry have been stable markets,fixed production process focusing on economy-of-scale and cost efficiency.But the tradition to solely concentrate on the process development and hunt costs has changed.
Process Industry as a term has come to symboli an industry heavily invested in its technology.However,balancing the need to develop more customer-specific products and keeping costs down with process development is a dilemma.Today, companies within the Process Industry,like steel and paper,are closing in on other manufacturing industry concerning the need to develop more“customer-specific”
Determinants of an Effective Product Development Process239 products(Chronéer,2003).The type of innovation is changing,from merely production-oriented to a more customer-oriented perspective in development work (e.g.,development of niche products),i.e.,the pattern of innovation in the Pro-cess Industry has changed from a production-oriented to a more customer-oriented perspective(Chronéer,2003;Van Donk,2000).This change of a condition in prod-uct development for the Process Industry will require a change of the content and activities in the product development process.Other aspects must be considered to ,developing niche products.How a company belonging to the Pro-cess Industry will cope with such a change will depend on organisational aspects, i.e.,how to organi and manage intra-and inter-firm process.What activities must be undertaken?What internal and external forces must be considered?What competencies must be maintained,acquired or both?However,a dilemma for com-panies in the Process Industry is the interlinked process and product development.
A change in a material property requires a change in some of the production process parameters and vice versa.
The remainder of this paper is organid as follows.The next ction prents a narrative consisting of product development in the Process Industry,and is mainly bad on earlier rearch in the Process Industry and our own studies.Literature review discussing some of the determinants of an effective product development process is given in the ction after it.The literature rearch is connected to the product development process,including articles published in major English-language,organisation-oriented North American and European journals where this work is likely to appear.1We specifically concentrate on the literature focusing on the efficiency and effectiveness of the new product development ,fac-tors that explain the product development process.Even with the constraints, covering all studies in one review paper is impossible.The literature rearch has also been conducted in databas with links to other journals discussing the topic of organisation and management of the product development process.In the last ction we analy how the product development process is conducted in the Process Industry and prent a conceptual framework of the determinants of an effective product development process for the Process Industry.
Product Development in the Process Industry—A Narrative Insight A product development process exists in an industry context.This paper focus on the Process Industry due to the few rearch attempts focusing on the prod-uct development process and Process Industry.This ction gives a brief narrative
1We included Rearch Policy,Journal of Management Studies,California Review,Journal of Product Innovation Management,International Journal of Innovation Management.
240 D.Chronéer&K.Laurell-Stenlund
insight of product development in the Process Industry,focusing on organisation and management,and the relation between product development and the material characteristics.
Products in the Process Industry are procesd with minimal interruptions in any one production run or between production runs of products exhibiting process characteristics,such as liquids,fibres,powders and gas(Gunakaran,1998).The general characteristics of this industry add value to materials by mixing,parat-ing,forming or chemical reactions.The Process Industry obtains its raw materials from mining,forestry or agriculture.The raw materials vary naturally in qual-ity,with many products being produced from a few kinds of raw materials com-pared with the us
ual schedule in discrete manufacturing where end items contain many different components(Gunakaran,1998).Product development in the Pro-cess Industry can be a major risk due to the cost and time involved.There has, however,been a recent reawakening with companies cutting costs and reposition-ing themlves in the market place.Since technological developments are mov-ing at an evermore rapid pace,product life cycles are becoming shorter(Ita and Gross,1995).开斋节
From production of commodity raw materials like steel,paper and glass to value-added materials such as advanced ceramics,process industries are uniquely built around production process that manipulate material properties to produce raw materials for u in a variety of applications(Barnett and Clark,1996).The charac-teristics of the Process Industry are very different from asmbly/fabrication indus-tries and may require a different type of management emphasis(Utterback,1996). Process development is an often difficult and constraining aspect of product devel-opment in the Process Industry,and it is assumed that since product and process are symbiotically related in the production system,fundamental changes in the one must then incite parallel fundamental changes in the other(Etienne,1981). Managing and organising the product development process
Our main understanding of how product development in the Swedish Process Indus-try is conducted is bad on three studies investigating companies in , process industries,where all have some kind of development projects focusing on the product or the production process.Our description of product development in the Process Industry in this ction is complemented with examples from the websites of other companies.
The three studies include two exploratory studies consisting of ca studies with in-depth interviews.Thefirst study focud on product development work, the cond study on strategic competence supply,and the third study had a more quantitative approach with the perspective on development work,e Table1.
Determinants of an Effective Product Development Process241 Table1.The composition of the three studies incorporated in this paper.
Study no.123
Time of study199719982000
Nature of study Qualitative Qualitative Quantitative
No.of companies4350 participating夏热
Type of industry Steel and paper Steel and metal Mining,steel,paper,
rubber,plastic,chemical,dairy Number of214550 respondents
No.of employees300–400110050–1000
on average
Unit of analysis Product Company Development work
development work
Few rearch attempts on product development in process industry companies led us to consider personal and telephone interviews to be best at this stage of the rearch,since it is an area of little knowledge.A mi-structured interview technique was applied with a focus on certain ,organization of product development,competence supply.
Product development work
Our studies show that the main ideas to product development projects in the Pro-cess Industry have traditionally come from the production process.Some process industries,like mining,steel and paper,have traditionally been production-oriented in their product development ,the production process states the limits within where products can be developed.However,chemical and dairy industries have more tradition of clo interaction with their customers.This is about to change due to a trend towards a change of orientation for all types of process industries, i.e.,towards a more customer-and product-oriented focus.For instance,customers today are more involved in the product development process.However,product and process development is still an interlinked process and difficult to parate.This change of orientation will require other types of competences in product develop-ment as well as knowledge of how to manage the product development process and how to acquire competence and spread information.
Product development activities and parallel and iterative process
小羊桃北京二手房交易流程In the product development process,different activities are accomplished within the team,between the teams,and between the team and other functions within
242 D.Chronéer&K.Laurell-Stenlund
the organisation,suppliers and customers.However,problems when organising for an effective product development exist.The“right”organisation for product development in one company may not be best for another.When organising the work and activities related to the product development process,it should be en as a multifunctional process with parallel and iterative process within and between thefirms.
From this perspective,the trend of a changed focus from process development to product development will have an impact on intra-and inter-firm process, including the relationships to customer and suppliers in the product development process.
Managing human resources and developing and acquiring competencies in the Process Industry will be a cumbersome matter in the coming years.The change of technology from manual work to a high grade of automation due to advanced infor-mation technology has led to the demand for a highly skilled workforce.However, the tacit knowledge developed by individuals within a specific company has a cru-cial impact on the strategic competencies of that company.Individual competencies, including many years of experience,can be difficult to replace in personnel turnover situations.The challenge is to maintain the experiences gained in daily work situ-ations considered important for product development as well as in developing new experiences to prevent the u of obsolete knowl
edge.The uniqueness of the differ-ent activities and work conditions in the Process Industry has created a culture that is different from other manufacturing industries.The environment is hard,and in many cas dangerous.The experiences of how to manage and perform activities in this unique environment are embedded in the organisational and individual capabil-ities.For example,operational work in the mining and steel industries is conducted in teams.The teams develop a tacit knowledge of how to handle critical situations and how to prevent a stop in the production process.Shared between its members, this tacit knowledge may determine the efficiency of the company.In the product development process,the tacit knowledge of operational work is an important factor when developing new products,as well as knowledge of the material characteristics. In the highly automated production process,some activities are still manual where this tacit knowledge is ud.When managing the product development process,the technical competencies consisting of professional knowledge and skills related to material properties,quality improvements and the development of a wider product range are also important.This explicit knowledge,together with the tacit knowl-edge developed in the company creates an important group dynamic process when building product development teams and their relations to customers and suppliers.
To understand the process,a brief insight into product development in the Process Industry is provided by discussing its relation to material characteristics.
