Product development time performance: Investigating the uncertainties on product conceptualization phase and the influence on time to market

Abstract

This empirical study identifies the main uncertainties present in the conceptualization phase of a new product development and their effect on time to market. In a previous study, 15 senior project leaders involved in the development of new products at a home appliance industry in Brazil were interviewed. In the study, the main uncertainty factors experienced by the project team where of the concept generation phase of a new product, was identified. Aiming at validating the uncertainty factors identified in the previous research, and also at identifying their influence on the timing of new product development of other categories of products, a field research has been carried out involving the new product development (NPD) of three different organizations leaders in their segments in Brazil: the home appliance industry, the hermetic compressor industry and the plastic transformation industry in Brazil. In that second study, NPD project senior leaders were interviewed about projects already carried out, and about the influence of uncertainty factors on the development time of those projects. With the data collected in the second research, a forecast model to calculate the average time of project development up to the launching of the end product for the NPDs analyzed was developed.