Procesos implicados en la lectura

The performed survey partially confirms the generally shared vision in the literature that Product Planning is often entrusted to intuition and experience of few decision makers. However, the author’s research team also identified several attempts of the companies to reduce managers’ discretion (e.g. through customer surveys or customer preferences analysis). The research confirms that, in larger companies, the tasks are commonly supported by conjoint activities involving multidisciplinary teams, as recommended also by Pahl and Beitz (2007). However, interviewed SMEs use this synergic strategy too. Indeed, it is useful for both types of enterprises to take customer needs and technological capabilities into sufficient consideration, even in the early stages of the innovation process, as suggested by Rubenstein (1994), so that they can minimize both uncertainties about market results and problems related to the technical feasibility of products.

The problem raised in (Song et al. 1998; Leenders and Wierenga 2002) concerning difficulties in interfacing technical and market experts have been not observed in the surveyed enterprises. In addition, the survey has not highlighted the propensity of entrusting marketing teams the main responsibilities concerning the identification of business

opportunities to pursue and the core competing factors of new products, as pointed out by Krishnan and Ulrich (2001). Indeed, technical experts are always involved in these activities. This aspect deserves to be deepened, since it could mean a growth of competencies of engineers involved in the FFE of NPD cycles, a shift of responsibilities over time from marketing departments to technical units, or, otherwise, the sample of the survey could result heavily biased in terms of the strong technological orientation of the investigated industrial fields.

Eventually, although it is widely acknowledged in the literature that companies allocate many more resources to perform Back End activities of the design process, just two interviewed SMEs clearly confirmed this general tendency.

As shown in Table 2.4 most of the surveyed companies are not very enthusiast of their current Product Planning approach and they are quite inclined to test new approaches, even if they do not know further methods. However, the survey highlighted organizational constraints that imply difficulty to introduce modifications of the current approach because of well-established organizational structures.

Company Level of satisfaction for the used approach Knowledge of literature methods Inclination to test new approaches Ease of introducing new approaches in the firm (structural limits)

Company 1 Medium No Medium Medium

Company 2 Low No High High

Company 3 Low No Medium Low

Company 4 Medium No Medium Medium

Company 5 High No Low Low

Company 6 Medium No Medium Low

Table 2.4 summary of some basic results emerging from companies’ survey

The most pressing exigencies related to Product Planning activities expressed by at least half of the surveyed firms (as shown in Table 2.5) are:

1. Quickness and easiness of the method/tool: easy, quick and intuitive methods

reduce the companies’ committed resources;

2. Development of computer applications: those methods that have been

implemented in a computer-aided tool accelerate and make easier the Product Planning phase;

3. Effective support in the individuation of latent needs: the discovery and

fulfilment of latent needs supports the development of breakthrough products and allows avoiding head-to-head competition;

4. Integrated competitors’ analysis: the analysis of the reference industry can help

to individuate the competition factors and to seek a differentiation strategy; 5. Consideration of customer preferences dynamics: those methods that consider

the variations in the time of the customers’ preferences and tastes support the development of the right offer at the right time. Indeed, it can happen that long NPD cycles determine the market launch of products that are not valued anymore by customers, due to alterations of priority needs to be fulfilled;

6. Reliability of the approach: Product Planning methods are considered reliable,

whereas, regardless their way of functioning, many practical implementations are documented leading to successful new products. The repeatability of positive outcomes within different industrial sectors has to be considered as an extreme demonstration of methods’ reliability;

7. Support in selecting the most beneficial product idea: it is fundamental to

support the last decision-making phase of the Product Planning, because it evaluates which product idea has the greatest chances to be turned into a potential market success;

8. Independence from inputs subjectivity: it refers to the limited employment of

personal judgments or uncertain inputs, which can alter the final results of the Product Planning. Such feature influences to a considerable extent the robustness and repeatability of the method or tool;

9. Possibility of involving customers in the Product Planning activities: this need is

strictly related to the possibility of minimizing the risks related to the development of new products.

10. Possibility of entrusting the Product Planning phase to multidisciplinary teams: this demand starts with the assumption that multidisciplinary teams can provide more point of views, supporting the development of innovative products. 11. Possibility of formally schematizing the identified ideas: this need is related to

the demand of formalizing, saving and sharing generated ideas.

Companies needs Firm 1

Firm 2 Firm 3 Firm 4 Firm 5 Firm 6 1. Quickness and easiness of the

method/tool • • • • •

2. Use of computer applications • • • •

3. Effective support in the

individuation of latent needs • • •

4. Integrated competitors’

analysis • • • • •

5. Consideration of customer

preferences dynamics • • • •

6. Reliability of the approach • • • •

7. Support in selecting the most

beneficial product idea • • •

8. Independence from inputs

subjectivity • • • •

9. Possibility of actively involving customers in the Product Planning activities

• • • • •

10. Possibility of entrusting the Product Planning phase to multidisciplinary teams

• • •

11. Possibility of formally

schematizing the identified ideas • • •

This set of diffused companies’ needs together with further features identified through literature review have been used to compare what industrial subjects demand and what literature methods claim. This analysis will be described in the next Section.