On opening night, something usually goes wrong. People learn from it and improve future performances. But what if things never got better ... the same mistakes were made time after time?
This is often the case with new product development. The people “in” the process work diligently, but the antiquated IT solutions let them down. Historically speaking, IT applications were built to optimize one, or a small group of activities, rather than the end-to-end business process. These silo’d solutions require people to manually interpret the output of the previous step, rather than immediately moving forward with trusted data. These steps represent “seams” in your product development process, and are potential points of failure. Worse, the data is often dispersed across many applications or even hidden on researchers’ hard drives. This “dark data” makes it difficult to develop a new product or even leverage data from previous efforts. The result is repeated defects; “opening night, every night.”
So how bad is the problem? Let’s discuss formulating a new product. I call it "the ankle bone is connected to the shin bone."
We begin with identifying an unmet consumer need. We must define “what” we are trying to accomplish. For example, we’re trying to remove stubborn stains from clothing. Three potential ways to remove them include:
1. Add a bleach component to the detergent
2. Develop a spray-on solution prior to washing the clothes
3. Develop a real-time stain removal agent
Each approach has pros and cons. We must clearly identify our target customer and “what” we’re trying to deliver. All approaches can be part of the normal clothes-washing process. However, approach three also offers immediate and mobile stain removal.
Scientists begin experimenting with different ingredients (aka materials) to identify potential solutions. As new materials are verified, they are added to the material master, along with the purpose for which they’re approved. Different materials are combined in different ways to create new batches. The batches are evaluated against success criteria to determine how well they deliver against the intent. The scientists iterate through the formulation and testing process, recording test results from each combination.
During the development process, they must also ensure the product is fit for use from a manufacturing, customer (retailer), and consumer perspective. In the manufacturing realm, you may have a great new product, but if your plants can’t produce it without inventing a new production component, the cost and time to deliver your new product increases. From a customer perspective, the product and packaging must fit on their shelves, and be available when they set their planograms. The consumer may have other guardrails against which you must design. For example, how easy is it to open the product? What happens if I drop it? These are all factors that must be taken into consideration in the design of your new product and packaging.
The primary and secondary packaging must also be designed and approved during the product development cycle, including creating the label graphics and copy content. If this product is offered for sale globally, you’ll also need to manage the copy in several languages.
As the correct way(s) to manufacture the new product are uncovered, procedures and quality specifications are generated to support the make, pack, and ship processes.
These represent a subset of the things you need to do to bring a new product to market. Can you imagine the productivity gain you’d gain by improving the seams? Employee productivity, product quality, speed of delivery, and repeatability are vastly improved through integrated data.
I’ve navigated these waters and can help you deliver business results faster. Transformed processes, data definition and ownership, vendor selection, organizational change, and several other factors will impact your effectiveness. Contact me to learn more.