Strategic Integration
THE STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE: Represent The Voice Of Every Stage In The Value Chain In Every New Product That You Launch.

The audio-product development team at Philips--clockwise from left: Hasan Ali, Milind Nene, Sunil Chandy, Abhimanyu Kulkarni, Vijay Gosavi, Chandrashekar Ranjekar, Ashok Panwalkar and Shrirang K. Gokhale--has made prototype-testing under extreme operating environments the key to getting its new products right for the marketplace

At air-conditioner-maker Amtrex Hitachi Appliances, it is difficult to pinpoint where a new product begins life. For, in the Team of Accelerated Innovation (TAI) approach that it uses, a cross-functional task-force ensures the constant involvement of every function in the company in the development process. The tai is split into 3 stages: idea-to-concept finalisation (TAI-1); prototype-to-launch (TAI-2); and launch-to-customer satisfaction (TAI-3). None of these stages is limited to any particular department although the responsibilities are, obviously, distributed differently at each stage. Says Vinay Chauhan, 40, Head (Innovation Process), Amtrex Hitachi, who has overall responsibility for new product development: ''This way, we are a spider organisation, focusing on teamwork and constant networking, steeped in the belief that creating a new product is a company-wide responsibility.''

It's called concurrent engineering. At the Superdeveloper, product development is a continuous activity, working constantly in conjunction with the other functions to design, prototype, test, modify, and improve the product. Thus, the marketing people will be test-marketing a product on a sample customer-base even before it has reached the final prototype. Even before that, the vendors will be working on designing components for the new product, and sending their feedback so that the developers can modify their design accordingly. Why, even the packaging people will be telling the design-team at an early stage whether the product is too heavy given the materials they want to use.

At Bajaj Auto, product development is the fulcrum around which 5 parallel activities revolve: product definition and design, manufacturing process development, marketing, planning, and tooling. Claims S.R. Marathe, 50, General Manager (Product Engineering), Bajaj Auto: ''In one swing, we have replaced the lack of tools for an insight into design with this new process. Now, different departments work on different application areas: industrial design on styling; engineering design on structural and engine components; product engineering on machine tool design; and systems on system configuration.''

In fact, Bajaj Auto managed to get its Cygnet scooter into the market in 9 months flat-instead of the customary 2 years-only because it used concurrent engineering. To launch its Odyssey range of luggage within the 8 months' deadline that the top management had set in order to pre-empt the entry of Samsonite, Blow Plast's design team applied the same technique. Adds Ashok Taneja, 47, Senior Executive Director, Shriram Pistons & Rings: ''We always send cross-functional teams to interact with buyers so that they are involved in product development right from the inception.''

An alternative way of achieving the same results is multi-tasking through a cellular development team, which plays all the roles that different functions would. At Titan, once the prototype for a new design is approved, it is handed over to the Design and Development Department, where a cluster-owner, working with a 2- or 3-member team, takes on the responsibility to carry the product from the concept development stage to the launch. Explains B.V. Nagaraj, 41, Group Manager (Design & Development), Titan: ''This owner handles not only sourcing, but also facilitates the entire development process.''

At tvs-Suzuki, which developed its Spectra 2-wheeler indigenously, cross-functional teams comprise people from marketing, R&D, manufacturing, engineering, production, sourcing, and finance-all of whom sit on the same floor. Claims N.S. Mohan Ram, 63, Director (Projects), TVS-Suzuki: ''Independent studies have proved that physical distance among team-members affects communication within the group and, therefore, the health of the project.'' Admits M.N. Muralikrishna, 65, Vice-President (Technical), TVS-Suzuki: ''We couldn't have completed a project like the design of the TVS Spectra without concurrent engineering.''

Rane Madras, which designs and supplies rack-and-pinion steering gear to auto-makers, translates concurrent engineering into the process of involving vendors in its design. The reason is demonstrated by a recent product-development exercise the company had to go through for a customer about to launch a new car. Not being clear about its needs, this auto-maker asked Rane to develop as many as 5 different alternative designs. Although the company did not know which-if any-of the designs would be accepted, it still included vendors in the development process so that there would be no problems in the sourcing of sub-assemblies from them. Says P.R. Sarathy, 54, President, Rane Madras: ''We are able to respond quickly because of the continuous involvement of our vendors.'' And because of concurrent engineering.

THE NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT LESSON: Use cross-functional teams to collectively design new products. Ensure concurrent, and not serial, participation of every function.

Strategic Time
THE STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE: Translate Every New Product From The Lab To The Market In As Short A Time As Possible Without Affecting Costs.

Haste at every stage does not add up to speed. The more you hurry through the early phases of product development, the worse could be the delays when something goes wrong, and you have to start from scratch. On the other hand, spend a little additional time upstream, conducting that extra check or preparing Plan B-and the re-work time, if at all it is necessary, will be crushed. Observes Anil Patel, 47, the Deputy Manager (Design Centre) of the Baroda-based turbines-manufacturer Jyoti: ''If everything goes right, and the first prototype fits the bill, you may be wondering why you wasted time developing alternatives. But an insurance policy is always a smarter option. And not every product you design will work perfectly the first time round.'' When engineers at L&T's switchgear division start working on a new product, they have at least 2 concepts in mind. Adds Bajaj Auto's Marathe: ''We always have a couple of teams working on solutions simultaneously, never just one.''

That is why the Superdeveloper uses the system of gateways at every stage of the development of a new product. Sure, this makes for some extra work to pass the test, but it is crucial in order to avoid cost- and time-consuming downstream rework. For instance, changes after the prototyping stage can bleed the company because the dyes and moulds have to be re-cut. Elucidates M&M's Goenka: ''The gates don't open for a project to move to the next stage till certain events have taken place at a certain quality-level. No cheating is allowed.''

At M&M, this control-management, christened Total Project Work Planned, involves 5 gates, at each of which a green, a yellow, or a red signals a go-ahead, a need to fix, or a serious problem, respectively. And Amtrex Hitachi has as many as 8 gates for each new product. Gate 1 is used to consolidate all the needs that the new product will serve, and decide if they merit spending time and money. Gate 2 reviews the design brief, based on studies of the market, users, and competing products. At Gates 3 and 4, the concept is developed and a detailed design is created. Gate 5 sees the prototype going through it while Gate 6 looks at component-sourcing and production. At Gate 7, trial production, followed by field-tests and design-validation are the key factors, and Gate 8 gives the go-ahead, after reviewing the final design, for mass-production.

Says Amtrex Hitachi's Chauhan: ''Depending on the gate, one or more of the key people, such as the heads of marketing, manufacturing, and quality assurance, or the CEO-sometimes, all of them-are present for the clearance.'' Understanding just how to punctuate the process with controls is important. Explains IIT's Munshi: ''If design has to be managed well, the control has to be loose at the beginning, growing tighter towards the end of the process.'' Why? Simple: too many controls upstream will stifle innovation and creativity since chances are that a truly revolutionary product will not pass the standard control gates early in its development-cycle.

Take the way new product ideas flow at the transmission division of Hindustan Motors. An elaborate cause-and-effect diagram has been put up on the shopfloor for workers to put in stickers as new product suggestions. This generates a basket of ideas, each of which is put through the Quality Functional Deployment technique-which audits the fit between the product and the customer's need-before being accepted or rejected. Thus, the product-development process generates a thick stream of activities upstream. Says B.K. Nagendra, 49, Senior Manager (R&D), Hindustan Motors: ''If we start throwing out ideas before they reach a particular stage, no one will respond.'' Adds Victor Jayakaran, 45, Vice-President (Engineering), EnThink Inc., a US-based semiconductor-manufacturing start-up owned by Wipro: ''The structures must be loose in the idea phase.'' Or else, innovation will be trashed.

THE NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT LESSON: Use upstream checks, even if it takes longer, to prevent downstream rework. Apply gateways at every stage.

Strategic Quality
THE STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE: Make Every New Product Conform To The Parameters Chosen Up-front For Meeting The Customer Needs Being Targeted.

At Reddy's Laboratories, product development, carried out by (clockwise from front, left) Chairman K. Anji Reddy, Prem Kumar, Madhuri, Sriram, C. Seshagiri and Parimal Mishra of Dr Reddy's Research Foundation, begins with the market, with opportunities being identified and segments being shortlisted, so that the drug-discovery process in focused

It is the inherent inconsistency of new product development. While design and R&D can ensure that customer needs are met by the product-regular reviews can do the job-just how can they also ensure consistent quality during the manufacturing process? As Blow Plast's Ware says: ''It can never be a good product if you continue to struggle with your manufacturing process.'' The answer lies in using the development process to design products with fewer, error-proof components, and simple assembling processes where mistakes are unlikely. Bajaj Auto uses this philosophy to routinely try to merge 2 components into one, as it did with the Legend. Instead of bolting it together, the team integrated the engine crankcase with the differential case into one casting so that the number of machining jobs and mismatches would be reduced. Says S.P. Rao, 50, Deputy General Manager, Bajaj Auto: ''This way, you control the geometric mismatches.''

A potent technique for ensuring product quality at the development stage is benchmarking; ideally, checking out how different aspects of the product stack up against different competitors who are trying to meet the same customer need. Thus, M&M is benchmarking the Scorpio against the Sumo for passenger comfort, against its own vehicles for fuel-economy, against the Maruti Gypsy for comfort and ease-of-driving, and against the Tata Sierra for acceleration. And Philips and Videocon are benchmarking their product shapes and styling against those of contemporary cars and domestic appliances.

Philips applies the Fault Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) technique to check the various things that could go wrong with a specific product, and chalk out an optimum solution. Enumerates Philips' Gosavi: ''First, we determine all the things that can go wrong with, say, an audio-product. Maybe the cabinet parts are too fragile, maybe the speakers could get dislocated, maybe the transformer voltage is shooting up. Each of these is a failure mode. Then, every such mode is assigned a priority number on the basis of how much of a risk to the product it poses. That way, the highest risks are given the greatest priority from the design perspective. The idea is to spend less resources on irritants, and more on potential sources of catastrophe.''

In fact, it is not just the product being developed, but also the product-development process that improves at the Superdeveloper through benchmarking. Voltas, for instance, tracks cost-cutting technologies globally for assimilation into product development. Amtrex Hitachi's current new product development process, termed Innovation Process, has been crafted through extensive benchmarking against 3m and Eicher Tractors. Says T. Mitsuta, 49, Head (Product Planning), Amtrex Hitachi: ''There has been constant refining of the development process through benchmarking.'' From 3m, Amtrex Hitachi learnt innovation and the benefits of team-work. And Eicher Tractors taught it the benefits of the stage-gate system.

THE NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT LESSON: Benchmark the performance of the prototype against best-in-class standards. And check for manufacturability.

It is a truism today that technology is enabling product development to take giant leaps. Rapid-tooling software, for instance, enables computers to simulate entire prototypes-and predict accurately just how they will respond to specific conditions-in hours, using as inputs just 3-dimensional definitions of different components. Blow Plast uses nastran, a piece of software used by NASA in the US, to simulate conditions on which its luggage would be damaged, deformed, and destroyed. This enabled it to determine its product's tolerance-levels.

Acknowledges R. Ravi, 41, Associate Professor (Mechanical Engineering Department), IIT-Mumbai: ''Ultimately, better technology means better planning, better prediction, and smaller lead times.'' But it is the management of the intangibles-the innovation, the time-cycles, the customer focus-that will differentiate the company that can derive competitive advantage from its product development from the one that creates new products simply because it has to. It can be a short journey from the lab to the customer's home, through the shopfloor and the shopshelf, if you follow the Superdeveloper's blueprint.

--additional reporting by S. Chandrashekar, Rajeev Dubey,
M.P. Vinod Kumar, & R. Sridharan

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