Project Management for Successful Product Innovation

by Webb,Alan

• ISBN13: 9780566082627
• ISBN10: 0566082624
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-12-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This comprehensive book provides a complete guide to managing projects involving the development of new products. It aims to give the practising project manager an insight into the many processes that are involved in handling one of the most complex of industrial activities.The book is arranged in a logical sequence covering the development of project management, project management structures, aspects of planning, monitoring and control, economics and value management, design management, intellectual property issues and production start-up. Particular emphasis has been given to risk management which is recognized as both a difficult subject and also one of growing importance to today's project manager, especially in product innovation. A complete explanation is given of the latest and most relevant techniques together with guidance as to where and how they should be applied. Where software tools are available these are named and, in some cases, brief descriptions are included; in all cases contact details of the vendors are provided.

Author Biography

Alan Webb started with the British Aircraft Corporation working on the Concorde project. He continued his career as a senior project manager on the development of airborne weapons and their carriage and release equipment. In 1991 he formed his own consultancy providing services in project management

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. ix
List of tables	p. xv
Preface	p. xvii
Projects and project management	p. 1
Projects and managers	p. 2
An evolving discipline	p. 3
Where is project management now?	p. 9
Innovation and the creation of new products	p. 17
Innovate to survive	p. 17
The process of innovation	p. 19
Product life cycles	p. 22
Product life cycles--the aero-engine for commercial applications	p. 23
Sources of ideas for innovative products	p. 32
Strategies for innovation	p. 37
Bids and tenders	p. 44
Sources of funds for development projects	p. 49
Summary	p. 54
Organising the project	p. 55
Project management, the approach for today	p. 55
Project managers and project structures	p. 58
Collaborative project structures	p. 68
Leadership and the individual	p. 73
The structure of the project team	p. 81
Summary	p. 82
Planning for success	p. 83
Organisation for planning	p. 83
The role of planning in a development project	p. 84
Setting out the project plan	p. 87
Prototype construction and test	p. 90
Scheduling activities with limited resources	p. 92
Network analysis	p. 95
Networks in practice	p. 104
Contemporary software	p. 109
New developments	p. 114
Summary	p. 116
Success by design	p. 119
Factors that influence design	p. 119
The design and development cycle	p. 123
Simultaneous engineering	p. 127
Quality by design	p. 130
Test for lowest fuel consumption	p. 132
Design reviews	p. 137
Configuration management	p. 140
Design control during development	p. 143
Structured engineering data	p. 153
Summary	p. 156
The cost and value of products	p. 159
Design-to-cost	p. 160
Value engineering	p. 167
Cost-to-function analysis for an automatic washing machine	p. 178
Summary	p. 188
Managing the materials	p. 189
Planning the acquisition process	p. 189
Build sequences	p. 190
Control and co-ordination	p. 193
Feasible output programmes	p. 194
Feasible output calculation	p. 196
Monitoring progress	p. 197
Computerised materials management	p. 202
A computerised materials management system	p. 204
Leading the materials management group	p. 210
Summary	p. 211
Progress, performance and control	p. 213
The project control cycle	p. 213
The slip diagram	p. 217
Completion of a set of drawings	p. 217
Slip diagram for the BAe/GEC Nimrod AEW 3 project	p. 219
The origins of formalised cost and schedule control	p. 221
Estimate of the outcome of a project at the mid-point of its life	p. 228
Difficulties with the predictive formulae	p. 231
The organisational impact of cost-performance measurement	p. 233
Work breakdown structures	p. 234
Relating the work breakdown structure to the project plan	p. 237
Organisation for cost--performance measurement	p. 243
Measuring project progress	p. 245
Contemporary software	p. 247
Cost--performance measurement in practice	p. 248
How has cost-performance measurement been viewed by industry?	p. 253
Progress reports	p. 254
Lines of communication	p. 257
Meetings	p. 259
Project reviews	p. 259
Summary	p. 261
Implementing the production programme	p. 263
Phasing the programme	p. 263
Types of production	p. 266
Economic aspects of tooling	p. 268
Acquisition of a special machine	p. 269
The learning process	p. 270
Time reductions for fabricated aircraft panels	p. 278
Batch costs for vehicle chassis	p. 281
Learning rates with two shifts	p. 282
Cost reductions where an incentive scheme is in operation	p. 283
The rate of production progress	p. 285
The build-up of production output	p. 289
Management responses to low output rates	p. 291
Production readiness	p. 293
Summary	p. 295
The economics of projects	p. 299
Estimating the project cost	p. 299
Product cost estimate, airborne equipment	p. 311
Justifying the investment	p. 315
Project investment decision	p. 318
The profit potential of new products	p. 320
Profitable sales figures for a new product	p. 324
How is money spent on innovation?	p. 328
Summary	p. 329
Analysing the risks	p. 331
The nature of risks	p. 332
Analysis and management	p. 339
Risk analysis methods	p. 341
Product and market strategy options	p. 347
Choice of a development strategy	p. 349
Stabiliser fin decision	p. 353
Expanding the decision options	p. 358
The effect of further information	p. 361
Summary	p. 366
Managing the risks	p. 369
Attitudes to risk	p. 369
The risk management process	p. 370
Robust programmes	p. 378
Software for risk analysis and management	p. 383
Summary	p. 396
Some commercial aspects	p. 397
Prime contracts	p. 397
Forms of contract	p. 400
Contract price adjustment using formula (13.3)	p. 407
Liquidated damages	p. 408
Intellectual property rights	p. 409
Summary	p. 415
Software products and vendors	p. 417
Bibliography	p. 423
Index	p. 427
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