Unlocking the power of big data within the early design phase of the new product development process

This study investigates how to exploit big data to increase knowledge in the early design phase within new product development through an industrial application. There are limited research and a scarcity of empirical studies that show the use of big data within new product development in manufacturing industries. Shorter design cycle demand, rapid decision-making, and the need for data-driven methodology are evident. An increase of knowledge through big data analytics, closing the loop with a knowledge base, has become a critical success criterion within the various industries. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in academic literature and investigates a case company. The case uncovered a gap of limited feedback into the early design phase. We developed a generic agile approach to extract value through analyzing big data. To fill in the identified gap, we tested our approach on a sample of big data, including both internal and external user data. Positive feedback from a survey complemented by interviews indicates that our method can aid decision-making within the early design phase by acquiring a more data-driven methodology