توضیحات
ABSTRACT
The Fuzzy Front End (FFE) is considered the first stage of New Product Development (NPD). The fuzzy front end decisions have great impact on product quality, costs, and time spent on new product projects. This paper seeks to identify which fuzzy front end activities and practices contribute the most to new product success of Brazilian Technology-Based Companies (TBCs) in the medical device industry and to provide a causal model for the fuzzy front end of new product development. The data were obtained by a survey carried out in 30 small companies including 49 new product projects. The companies were requested to choose new successful and unsuccessful product projects. The results demonstrate that successful projects are distinguished from unsuccessful projects due the follow practices: marketing orientation, the company competence to translate client needs into product characteristics, proficiency in idea generation, the interface between Marketing and R&D in the fuzzy front-end and the role performed by the leader project. Having got these findings, it was possible to propose a causal model with the critical success factor in four dimensions: strategic; process; organization; and leadership.
INTRODUCTION
New Product Development (NPD) is considered a complex business process since it includes a great number of activities and decisions. Researchers and managers involved in the NPD have Focuse on the Fuzzy Front End (FFE) of NPD due to its impact on the product quality, time spent to develop the project and development costs. Several studies (Backman et al., 2007; Kahn et al., 2006; Cooper et al., 2004c; Ernst, 2002; Griffin, 1997; Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1995) show the importance of this stage to the success or failure of the new products. Reinertsen and Smith (1991) were the first authors to use the term “fuzzy front end”. It is considered the first stage of NPD process and it covers the period and activities between the idea generation and the decision as to whether or not to invest resources in the further development of the new product. The fuzzy front end is also known as predevelopment phase of NPD. According to Moenaert et al. (1995), the FFE activities contributes for reducing the uncertainties resulting from market conditions, the technological development and the dynamics of competition. Hence, the companies should enhance communication between the functional areas, use decentralized structures to organize the project teams and to adopt formal control mechanisms during the FFE. Although considered very important for the new product success, the FFE is not easy to manage. Khurana and Rosenthal (1998) present some problems related to this phase and argue that a holistic management approach with multiple dimensions such as strategy, process, control, personnel and culture could help to overcome those problems.
Year: 2011
Publisher : BJ
By : Glauco Henrique de Sousa Mendes,José Carlos de Toled
File Information: English Language/ 20 Page / size: 907 KB
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سال : 2011
ناشر : BJ
کاری از : Glauco Henrique de Sousa Mendes,José Carlos de Toledo
اطلاعات فایل : زبان انگلیسی / 20 صفحه / حجم : KB 907
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