Product Launches Getting Delayed? Find Out How You Can Speed Up NPD/NPI with the right PLM Software

Accelerate Product Launches with Faster NPD/NPI

A Gartner survey reveals that 45% of product launches are delayed, 20% do not meet their internal targets, and only 55% of products are launched on schedule. The major causes for delays were identified as:

• Absence of formal launch processes
• Product development delays due to bugs, errors, and feature creep
• Inability to meet customer requirements
• Problems with product quality
• Supply chain p

Gartner also warns that delays in launches will increase the risk of failure rates.

Henrico Dolfing, in his book ‘The Project Valuation Model’ stresses that there is a cost to this delay and that companies must understand the cost of delay (CoD) and how to calculate it. Any delay denies the business an opportunity to leverage the peak demand and amplify its revenue-earning potential.

One of the key reasons why product launch delays happen is poor communication and collaboration between the different teams involved in the New Product Development (NPD) and New Product Introduction (NPI).

NPD and NPI are seamlessly integrated. While NPD refers to the product ideation, design, development, and testing stages, NPI refers to manufacturing and release as per the schedule. Product launch is part of the NPI process and relies on NPD going as per schedule to happen successfully.

Common Causes for Delays

From the time of ideation to the time of the product launch, each step in the product lifecycle involves several processes. For instance, ideation involves brainstorming between different teams, ideally including not just the designers but even the manufacturing and sales teams who can provide valuable insights and feedback. At the design stage, reviews and validations are critical before finalizing the specifications and the bill of materials. As the processes flow downstream, the iterations should be minimized as each change requirement will increase the cost and also add to risks. They will need to be validated and the design may have to be reviewed and revised based on need.

As a result, the risks increase, leading to delays to avoid quality issues. In organizations without a cloud-based, end-to-end product life cycle management system, the common challenges include:

• Data Silos: Manual or paper-based processes such as spreadsheets and emails lead to the creation of data silos that make managing and sharing information difficult. As each team may use a different system or application, version control and collaboration between the teams will require additional tools and systems, adding to the confusion.
• Poor Quality Control: Without standardized documentation and workflows, quality control can become challenging, and implementing corrective actions becomes difficult.
• Challenges to Regulatory Compliance: In the absence of a proper audit trail, meeting regulatory requirements can also be a challenge and result in warning letters, recalls, and penalties.
• Poor Collaboration: Due to lack of visibility, communication, and collaboration between teams located in disparate geographies can be a challenge, leading to delays, errors and rising costs of product development.

All these also have implications for brand reputation and customer loyalty, impacting revenues.

End-to-End PLM for On-time, Error-free Product Launch

One of the key requirements in today’s globally dispersed supply chain scenario is a cloud-based platform that allows all stakeholders visibility into the process. It empowers them with the data needed to make informed decisions in a timely manner. Reviews and approvals become faster and improve change and risk management.

ComplianceQuest’s Product Life Cycle Management Platform is built on Salesforce and integrates quality and product development processes to accelerate the development process while minimizing errors.

It facilitates design controls to release higher quality products in the market faster with full compliance and comprehensive documentation. It helps the quality and engineering teams stay in sync with a single source of truth for all product design activities.

The benefits of the ComplianceQuest Design Control product for accelerated product development integrated with quality include:

• Collaboration in Real-time: Collaboration between different members for critical tasks such as revisions or validations is facilitated as teams can access design files stored in a central location and assign and track actions for each team member based on deliverables. Modern collaboration tools such as Chatter and Design Review management are built-in to help teams collaborate in real-time while maintaining effortless documentation of project progress.
• Single Source of Truth: It enables all departments involved in the process to easily access shared records in a unified repository for all design documentation including requirements, deliverables, and changes. It also allows bringing in product data from other sources (ERP, Jira..) and keeps the quality and engineering teams in sync with a complete document stack.
• End-to-End Design Project Management: It allows tracking actions, deliverables, and timelines by all relevant team members. Assigning actions to team members and following up to ensure they are completed on time is made easy. Deliverables are instantly added to new projects through a configurable Deliverables Library. It’s also easy to keep track of all deliverables during all stages of the design lifecycle with advanced list views and Gantt charts that ensure each component receives the attention it needs.
• Always Up to Date DHF and DMR: The Design History File (DHF) and Device Master Records (DMR) are automatically kept up to date. The collaborating teams can access these critical folders at any time, search through them and share relevant documents with the click of a button.
• Compliant Documentation: All changes and updates are tracked, documented, and approved according to regulatory standards. Even approvals, signatures, revisions, and meeting notes are automatically documented, with built-in revision control for design files. This ensures compliance with regulatory and quality standards such as 21 CFR 820.30 and ISO 13485.
• Design Review Meetings Management: CQ’s design controls solution allows scheduling and managing design review meetings in one place. Project progress can be assessed, and tasks assigned and tracked during the meeting. Meeting minutes are also automatically documented for full traceability.

Further, ComplianceQuest also enables automated product inspections and supplier management to ensure end-to-end management of product lifecycle. To know more, visit www.compliancequest.com