Improving product launch success
In today’s rapidly evolving and increasingly consumer driven marketplace, product innovation—and the ability to get new products to market rapidly and efficiently—can make the difference between success and failure.
Yet the challenges involved in transitioning new products from development to manufacturing often make effective product introductions difficult. Frequent engineering changes during the highly fluid product design process require ongoing collaboration among design engineers, manufacturers, and suppliers as products move towards larger-scale production.
Incongruent spreadsheets, miscommunication, and ad hoc planning strategies often result in poor execution and failure to accurately align procurement with each phase of product ramp-up. This in turn
creates problems and delays that devour margins and eradicate anticipated market gains.
A new approach is warranted—one which provides the visibility and control that design engineers and manufacturers need to effectively
co-manage each step of a new product release. Industry leaders are turning to Response Management for the answer.
Response Management helps companies effectively manage in situations where changeis the norm and collaboration across organizational
boundaries is critical. By directly integrating with product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, ERP, and planning tools, Response Management applications provide a single, cohesive solution through
which engineers, manufacturers, and suppliers can:
> Exchange critical information and collaborate in real time to effectively share continually changing responsibilities from product inception to launch.
> Instantly model multiple product revision scenarios to accurately
pinpoint procurement needs and optimize use of existing inventory.
> Simulate various cut-in dates for incremental product revisions to
enhance timing and meet customer and market demands.
> Identify and order scarce and long lead-time components on a timely
basis to ensure go-to-market deadlines are met.
As products continue evolving at an ever-faster pace, the need to
capture critical demand windows through rapid innovation and product
release becomes more critical than ever. Companies that seek core competence in the capabilities provided by Response Management will dramatically enhance their ability to manage the transition process—enabling them to seize new market opportunities and gain competitive advantage.
(source: IndustryWeek column by Andrew Gort, former EVP of global
supply chain management for Celestica)
