Reengineering the New Product Development Process: A Framework for Innovation and Flexibility

In response to an increasingly global and competitive environment, reenglneering of fundamental cross functional processes i being actively pursued by corporatiom. This is particularly true in those industries which evolve rapidly. The flexibility to adapt to changing market needs and develop innovative products in such an environment is quintessential to success. This would make new product development arguably one of the moot critical cross functional process. Traditionally, this process has involved ine•cient sequential processing of information and plans between functional specialties. We propose a conceptual framework in this paper that facilitates innovation, flexibmty, and an understanding of the reenglneering of this product planning process. In particular, we consider the case of high technology firms in the semiconductor and telecommunications industry, which demands a high degree of product innovation. We propose that achieving innovation and flexibmty would require a considerable degree of planning and coordination through the various phases of development. This cunrdlnation is required not only across functional groups, but also across the hierarchical levels in the organization. Top level management support hrough a product champion, and proper interfacing with the external environment and the target market are essential components of such a planning process. The proposed framework is initially developed based on information elicited from an exper