Developing Products in Half the Time : Again and Again

With over 50% new content, this update of industry classic "Developing Products in Half the Time" reveals how engineers and manufacturing, design, and marketing managers can dramatically accelerate product development projects--from packaged goods to medical electronics--while simultaneously improving quality Pub: 9/97.

Developing Products in Half the Time Second Edition New Rules, New Tools Preston G. Smith * Donald G. Reinertsen In this era of global competition and accelerating product life cycles, the need to get new products to market faster is more compelling than ever. What was once considered fast development is now commonplace. In 1991, the original edition of this book became an instant hit as the leading guide to reducing product development cycle time. The expanded set of tools in this new edition meets the needs of today's more demanding times. The book's premise remains solid: time is worth money, and if you quantify this value you can buy time wisely, often to enormous advantage. Rather than pursuing development speed at any price, the authors emphasize subjecting time-to-market decisions to the same hard-nosed business logic used for other management decisions. Developing Products is unique in providing tools for trading off schedule against other business objectives. It integrates powerful methods to manage risk and use resources effectively with proven techniques to accelerate product development. Smith and Reinertsen discuss hundreds of practical tools for reducing cycle time, describing each one's application and limitations. Countless examples including Black & Decker, Hewlett-Packard, Honda, Motorola, and others illustrate how real companies use the tools. With six more years of implementation experience and responses from readers of the original 60,000 copies, the authors have sharpened the original tools and added new ones. New topics include:
* Advanced tools for calculating the cost of delay
* A process for shortening the Fuzzy Front End
* Alternatives to co-locating a team
* How to effectively involve customers in developing product specifications
* The role of advanced technology tools in r apid development
* Metrics for projects and processes
* New methods for managing risk
* How to continuously learn from your development projects
The strategies in Developing Products in Half the Time apply to all companies and industries including software and electronics, medical devices, machinery and vehicles, and consumer goods. The authors show how leading companies no longer depend on only a few isolated tools but now integrate a broad array of methods to gain synergy and greater competitive advantage. This is the guide you will need in the trenches if time to market is important to you-or if you are wondering if it should be. It will be equally valuable to new readers and to those who must move beyond the original edition.