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www.johnstark.com |
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Customer expectations are increasing. Customer demands are leading to a broader product range and more customization and market niches, but there's also increasing consumer resistance to price increases. Business is becoming more complex. There's more uncertainty. Uncertainty comes from a wider range of customers, shorter product life cycles, a fast rate of technology change and more competition. These are leading to more uncertainty about products and product development systems, and about the investment decisions associated with them. There's growing competitive and legislative pressure. Legislation such as that concerned with product liability, health and safety and the environment places additional strains on product development. Other drivers of change include increasing globalization and global competition, deregulation and privatization. Technology issues to be faced include the effect of the increasing amount of electronics in products, the possibilities offered by widespread communication networks and the World Wide Web, and the rapidly decreasing cost of computer power. Multi-technologies in the product and the manufacturing process make things more complex. In fast-evolving technological environments, products become obsolete sooner. The reduced time between product launch and product retirement erodes sales revenues. Since this phenomenon depends on factors beyond a company's control, the only way it can lengthen a product's life is to get it to the market earlier. Taken with customer demands, pressure from competitors and business uncertainty, these changes imply more frequent product design and volume changes, smaller volumes, and much more responsive management. All of these forces point towards reduced product development costs, reduced product costs, reduced product development cycle times, and improved quality. Product development performance is becoming increasingly important, and many product development organizations are being asked to improve performance significantly. Before setting improvement targets or defining improvement activities it's useful for them to have the current level of performance determined by an external, neutral expert. Improvement targets and activities will differ greatly for organizations rated AAA and those that are B's and C's. Our 'Product Development Performance Rating' service provides a neutral and expert rating of your organization's product development performance. This service is available in English, French, German, Italian and Japanese. The cost depends on the size of the organization, but is usually less than $10,000 for small organizations. For more information, please send us an e-mail headed 'Product Development Performance Rating' with a) your name and position b) the name of your organization c) your e-mail address. |