In recent years, new product development(NPD) has had the greater influence on the overall business competitiveness. As a result, the consolidated development capability of products has emerged as one of the most significant challenges in business management.
Since 1990s, the aspects connected with R&D system like the lead time of NPD, efficiency and effectiveness of development, the frequency of model modification and design quality have come into the spotlight, while those of production system like the manufacturing cost, productivity and manufacturing quality had taken into attention as the source of global competitiveness in previous days.
Concurrent engineering(CE) approach has loomed the while. It is the methodology that concurrently and generally manages NPD processes necessary to turn out new products or improve existing ones which vary in the specicification even if they have similar types of products.
The purpose of this study is to present a conceptual framework for the successful implementation of CE in NPD and to suggest guidelines for the concept development process which is the most important phase of NPD in implementing CE. Based on the review of relevant literature, in-depth analyses on the eight case companies are carried out.
This case study examines several development projects which have been implemented after having introduced CE approach in NPD system with an object to stepping up the competitiveness of product development in the global companies.
It is found that case companies have considered NPD as an important component that determines competitiveness and they strengthened the product development capability through the introduction of CE. This thesis analyzes such details as follows with taking them into synthetic considerations.
First, CE implementation processes of case companies are analyzed with respects to product development process, especially focusing on the major activities taken during the process.
Second, this thesis identifies four major components for the successful implementation of CE such as: i) mind innovation, ii) technological innovation, iii) organizational innovation, and iv) process innovation.
Third, changing patterns of NPD phases such as merge of phases and reduction of time in each phase are analyzed after applying CE concept. Especially specific activities in each phase are identified.
Fourth, relative importance of each phase in implementing CE has been analyzed. As a result, the concept development phase process(CDP) which is the early stage of product development has been identified as the most important phase in implementing CE.
This thesis suggests two practical guidelines, through the case analysis.
First, this thesis suggests the conceptual framework which is very useful in implementing CE ideas successfully into NPD, and in making an effort to enhance NPD capabilities or technical development competitiveness in Korean manufacturing firms.
Second, this thesis emphasizes the commitment in the front end phase which is key success factor(KSF) to make an effective implementation of CE approach and proposes some guidelines in completing CDP.
