PD-Trak™ NPD Process Management

New product development (NPD) is a business process that needs to be defined and managed just as any other business process. A paper on the Capability Maturity Model for the NPD process describes the evolution towards an optimized NPD process. Characteristics of a well-managed NPD process include:

• Well-defined process inputs in the form of customer needs and product specifications
• Well-defined process steps, process outputs (deliverable documents), and responsibilities
• Flexibility to support multiple processes and tailor the NPD process to the particular project requirements
• Process output templates to improve efficiency in creating process outputs and improve consistency
• Process controls in the form of stage-gate reviews and design reviews

PD-Trak™ Process Definition

PD-Trak™ includes our NPD Process-in-a-Box™, a process definition based on best practices and our extensive experience in assisting companies improve the new product development process. Our NPD Process-in-a-Box™ can be used as-is or can be compared to your existing NPD process and borrowed from. Either way, PD-Trak™ supports the definition of the NPD process with the following elements:

• A defined set of stages and gates shown below
• A task breakdown and deliverable documents associated with each stage (Task Plans)
• A set of templates for the deliverable documents to support the process along with guidance how to prepare each document
• A set of Product Development Tools to support the development process including Bills of Material, Quality Function Deployment, Target Costing, Design for Assembly, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, and Control Plans
• Two project management methodology alternatives
• Agendas and guidelines for gate reviews and design reviews

For further information, please contact us at: info@pd-trak.com or at 925-484-8436.

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