Delgardo-Hernadez, D.J., Benites-Thomas, A., & Aspinwall, E.M. (2007). New Product Development-Empirical Studies in the UK. International Journal of Product Development, 4(5), 413-441.

Format: Peer-reviewed article

Type: Research — Non-experimental

Experience level of reader: Fundamental

Annotation: This paper outlines the application of concurrent engineering, quality function deployment, and voice of the customer methods to new product development processes. It describes a mechanism to evaluate the utility of concurrent engineering and quality function deployment for particular projects, and describes a range of alternative voice of the customer techniques.

Setting(s) to which the reported activities/findings are relevant: Large business, Small business (less than 500 employees)

Knowledge user(s) to whom the piece of literature may be relevant: Manufacturers, Researchers

Knowledge user level addressed by the literature: Individual

This article uses the Commercial Devices and Services version of the NtK Model

Concurrent engineering barrier-compression of development times could lead to overlooking certain activities, leading to mistakes. There is not enough time, because the process is accelerated, to test alternative concepts and the resultant product could be less "manufacturable" than one developed sequentially.
Literature review and case studies

• Concurrent Engineering is a philosophy based on the concept of overlapping development activities, which are conducted simultaneously. The goal is to reduce product lead times and product costs.
  Literature review and case studies

• Sequential development model involves a stage-gate approach, where one task is completed, evaluated and subsequently passed on to the next stage. In practice, aspects of sequential development are often combined with aspects of concurrent engineering.
  Literature review and case studies.

• Techniques for gathering voice of the customer information include: use of customer complaints, internal market research, focus groups, one-to-one interviews, phone interviews, contextual inquiry, customer behavior studies, and perceptual mapping.
  Literature review and case studies
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 3.1, Step 5.1, Step 4.11, Step 2.2, Step 1.1, Step 8.2, Step 7.13, Step 6.3, Step 6.1, Step 5.3

• In order to determine if concurrent engineering is appropriate for a product, evaluate the project on two dimensions: complexity of the internal product structure (CIPS) and complexity of the product user interface (CPUI). CIPS and CPUI are further divided into high and low categories, establishing four quadrants. Items that are low in both CIPS and CPUI will not benefit much from concurrent engineering. High CIPS and low CPUI reveals a need for computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacture and failure mode and effect analysis. Low CIPS and High CPUI suggests a need for voice of the customer techniques and quality function deployment methods. The most complext products, those that are high in both dimensions will benefit from the application of formal methods like Taguchi, quality function deployment, and failure mode and effect analysis.
  Literature review and case studies

• Quality function deployment is a method for structured product planning and development that enables a development team to specify clearly the customer's wants and needs, and then to evaluate each proposed product or service capability systematically in terms of its impact on meeting those needs. Four matrices are typically used including the house of quality, subsystem design matrix, piece part design matrix, and process design matrix. As an example, the "House of quality" exhibits voice of the customer/ customer requirements against technical characteristics that will satisfy those requirements.
  Literature review and case studies.