Revitalising new process development in the UK fine chemicals industry

Abstract

Reports on one of the key developments made to date on a three-year EPSRC IMI research project in the fine chemicals industry. The project, Batch Route Innovative Technology: Evaluation and Selection Techniques (BRITEST), began in late 1997 with the aim to research new methods to deliver substantial benefits associated with new product development. The project will deliver a methodology, models and a suite of decision support tools sustaining and improving the new product development process, enabling novel technical solutions to be developed more in line with, and evaluated more appropriately against, the business strategy and market characteristics. The specific deliverable presented in this paper is an action research-derived framework that integrates the detailed processes, information requirements and decision making as a model of good practice for new product (or process) development (NPD) in the fine chemicals industry.

Formal Rules in Product Development: Sensemaking of Structured Approaches*

“…Some functional managers are openly aware of the discrepancy between the general official mandatory application of rules and the more relaxed application of rules in everyday practice in projects and at gate meetings. As several critics of gate systems have argued for a relaxed (Shaw et al, 2000) and not too rigid Durrani, 1997a, 1997b) implementation of rules, one could argue that this is actually what the observed practices in the present study indicate. The project managers also underscored the need for applying rules in an appropriate way.…”

“…Jenkins, Forbes, and Durrani (1997a, p. 391) says that ''these procedures should be seen as guidelines and if an overly rigid set of rules is applied to product development, responsibility may actually be taken away from the core team.' ' Shaw et al (2000) argue that if the method is employed rigidly and for its own sake, it may result in an actual increase in the development lead time.…”

“…Structured approaches and rules for product development are sometimes supplemented with requirements in other systems, such as quality management, project, and budgeting systems. The application of rules on product development can be characterized as relaxed as some have asked for (Shaw et al, 2000), but often with an obligation to explain deviations. In other instances, the everyday practices just seem to have drifted away from the original intentions of the rules.…”

Risk assessment of option performance for new product and process development projects in the chemical industry: a case study

“…This paper's case study concentrates on the area labelled Business Evaluation of Options (BEVO) in this figure since this is the location of the RAT. Figure 2 gives more detail on BEVO while Shaw et al (2001) give higher level and broader information on the overall research project.…”

Leadership Innovation and Implement Organizational Change and Lead a New Initiative through Adoption of the Innovation and Change Management Practices for Shiraz Industries Private Limited Company: A Survey from Pakistan

“…Managers should not expect while implementing the Pentathlon to find the linear process rather on an ongoing basis where revision and iterations are needed for different elements. The firm with high performance in innovation as suggested in several studies for developing new services and innovative product usually use formal process [13][14][15].…”