New Product Development Process - How to speed up?Here are some ideas that have worked out for us in speeding up our new product development process. Note that some of these ideas increase cost and others increase risk. However for many projects, the biggest cost is the cost of the project delay. Make sure the development engineers have spare capacityBreak new product development process into small tasksStart doing a development task as soon as enough information, material and parts are available for meaningful work to take placeReuse technology and product modules as far as possibleSeparate out product development tasks from technology development tasksUse rapid prototyping techniquesThey convey the full impact of the product to all the people involved. Quite a few people are unable to visualize the finished product from the CAD drawings or even the solid model.Test EarlyMany tests can be performed or approximated in the lab. See the article Quick free product testing for Environmental and ESD issuesGet prototypes in the hand of users as soon as possibleHave the development team in one location
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