Process Re-engineering for Effective Commercialization

The process of transforming R&D knowledge to successfully introducing new products in the market forms a key competency of an innovative company. This new product introduction process was studied at an instrument manufacturing firm. The process of commercialization spanned a number of departments and the process flow lacked functional integration. The current introduction process also lacked a number of management processes, structured feedback loops for information transfer and data metrics for process assessment and evaluation. Due to this, the information related to product knowledge was lost in the process, creating isolated information compartments. It was also seen that problems created earlier in the process cascaded through and an amplification effect was seen. This combined with micro-management of key processes deliverables and inadequate documentation led to a phenomenon of 'firefighting' during the product introduction process. The book discusses these problems in great detail and its causes and effects. Also, it presents a new re-engineered process that solves the existing redundancies making the existing commercialization process more effective and efficient.