Product Development Process Flows

The product development process generally follows a structured flow of activity and information flow. This allows us to draw process flow diagrams illustrating the process, as shown in Exhibit 2-5. The generic process flow diagram depicts the process used to develop market-pull, technology-push, platform, process-intensive, customized, and high-risk products. Each product development phase (or stage) is followed by a review (or gate) to confirm that the phase is completed and to determine whether the project proceeds. Quick-build products enable a spiral product development process whereby detail design, prototyping, and test activities are repeated a number of times. The process flow diagram for development of complex systems shows the decomposition into parallel stages of work on the many subsystems and components. Once the product development process has been established within an organization, a process flow diagram is used to explain the process to everyone on the team. References and Bibliography Many current resources are available on the Internet via www.ulrich-eppinger.net Stage-gate product development processes have been dominant in manufacturing firms for the past 30 years. Cooper describes the modem stage-gate process and many of its enabling practices. Cooper, Robert G., Winning at New Products: Accelerating the Process from Idea to Launch, third edition, Perseus Books, Cambridge, MA, 2001.