Managing Product Innovation in the Process Industries

This book puts management of product innovation in a corporate strategic perspective and argues that a company's competitive position is strongly related to an underlying unique and continually renewed product innovation work process, which drives innovation and delivery of new or improved products in the marketplace. The book will take the reader through a systematic examination of the necessary consecutive steps for companies' successful development of non-assembled products in the cluster of process industries.

For readers in search of a seamless, easy-to-use, effective formal product innovation work process, from customer understanding to product launch, this book provides a guiding framework and 'hands-on' advice for work process design. A novel five-phase structural process model of the product innovation work process is initially introduced in order to orchestrate a more dynamic interaction between product and process innovation and the integration of sustainability and product eco-design in product design.

The reader will learn first about the importance of aligning new product ideas with the corporate business model and product innovation strategy during the contextualization phase and then how to transform product ideas into well-defined complementary product and process concepts. In the movement of product ideas from the conceptualization phase to industrialization, the use of pilot-planting and production trials for scale-up of product and process concepts is further explored. To secure a design for processability, a novel industrialization sub-process is introduced, and the integration of complementary development of product and service offerings is further examined. The deployment of application development throughout and after product launch is highlighted for an enhancement of product commercialization and a reduction of 'time to break even' for new products.

Contents:

• Dedication

• Preface

• About the Author

• Acknowledgements

• Introductory Quotation

• Product Innovation in the 'Family' of Process Industries:

  • Introducing the 'Family' of Process Industries and Some Manufacturing Characteristics of Related Production Processes
  • On the Intrinsic Nature of Developing Non-Assembled Products and an Analysis of Product Innovation Characteristics in the Process Industries

• Formal Product Innovation Work Processes:

  • Formal Work Process Fundamentals and an Introductory Review of Product Innovation Work Process Configurations
  • In Search of an Innovation Work Process for Non-Assembled Products Adapted to Process-Industrial Conditions

• The Introduction of a Generic 'Structural Process Model' of the Innovation Work Process for the Development of Non-Assembled Products:

  • Orchestrate a More Dynamic Interaction Between Product and Process Innovation Throughout the Product Innovation Work Process
  • From Customer Understanding to Design for Processability: Deploy the Novel Five-Phase Structural Process Model as a Guiding Template in the Development of a Corporate Innovation Work Process for Non-Assembled Products

• Utilize the 'Structural Process Model' and Related Framework in the Development and Design of the Individual Phases of the Work Process:

  • The Contextualization (Ideation) Phase
  • The Pre-Product Development Phase
  • The Product Development Phase
  • Industrialization Activities in the Post-Product Development Phase
  • Product-Service Offerings During the Post-Product Development Phase
  • The Post-launch Follow-Up Phase

• Integrate Supplementary Supportive Perspectives