Editorial Review:
Today, a company's capability to conceive and design quality prototypes and bring a variety of superior products to market quicker than its competitors is increasingly the focal point of competition, contend leading product development experts Steven Wheelwright and Kim Clark. Drawing on six years of in-depth, systematic, worldwide research, they present proven principles for developing the critical capabilities for speed, efficiency, and quality that have worked again and again in scores of successful Japanese, American, and European fast-cycle firms.The authors argue that to survive, let alone succeed, today's companies must construct a new "platform" -- with new methodologies -- on which they can compete. Using their model for development strategies, Wheelwright and Clark show that firms can create a solid architecture for the integration of marketing, manufacturing, and design functions for problem solving and fast action -- particularly during the critical design-build-test cycles of prototype creation. They demonstrate further how successful firms such as Honda in automobiles, Compaq in personal computers, Applied Materials in semi-conductors, Sony in audio equipment, The Limited in apparel, and Hill-Rom in hospital beds have employed recent methodologies to bring new products to market at break-neck speed. Such innovations include design for manufacturability, quality function deployment, computer-aided design, and computer-aided engineering. Finally, Wheelwright and Clark emphasize the importance of learning in the organization. Companies that consistently "design it right the first time" and follow a path of continuous improvement in product and process development have a formidable edge in the crucial race to market.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
Master piece, but nothing is perfect 2002-03-20
Excellent book, it describes the management principles for the whole new product development (NPD) process. The graphical frameworks provide a valuable synthesis of knowledge. The practical examples are the right complement to their conceptual postulates. The book is highly advisable for all actors involved in the NPD process. However, it must be a "compulsory" reading for general managers and executives within manufacturing plants, because of its strategic orientation.
Specially delicious are the chapters about aggregate project plans (Ch. 4) and Structuring the Development funnel (Ch.5). They contain the basic principles to halt those managers that want to tackle all the projects with the same limited resources.
The only gap in the book is the unclear link between the "pre-project" stages of the development (Development goals and objectives, and Aggregate project plan), and the project management phase. The authors fail to clearly establish where the project leader and teams joint into the development. More specifically, project definition is missed on exhibit 2-11.
An excellent book on product development 1999-12-02
This book, written in 1992, started a whole revolution in looking at the management of product development. Concepts like: the funnel to focus the organization on the right projects, an aggregate project plan, and the best two pages on project management that I have ever read are in this book. If you are planning to change your new product processes, this book is a necessity. Steven Wheelwright is a genius and you can read his brillance in this book.
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