Stage gate process

Stages and gates, an approach developed by Robert Cooper, will improve supply chain planning in companies with numerous projects. ln these situations, the projects are usually of different sizes and priorities. They are moving at different paces through a product development pipeline. While many companies already use some form of the technique, that use is often confined to the technical side of the development process. We believe the stage and gate technique suits both product and process improvement. 

Before and after view of stage gate implementation. 

A gate, according to Cooper, has inputs or deliverables, decision criteria, and outputs. One such deliverable could be updated assumptions using the discovery-driven planning technique. Cooper advocates that the gate decision process should have two parts. The first part decides whether the project is sound. This is done as if the project is the only one under consideration. Assuming the project is sound, the second decision addresses the project s priority. This requires evaluation of resources and priorities to determine if the project should proceed past the gate. The decision may allow the project to proceed, call for its cancellation, or place it on hold until resources are available. 

The stage gate process fails, of course, if management doesn t demand the preset deliverables before allowing a project to pass on to the next stage. It also fails if lower-priority projects aren t set aside for higher-priority projects or canceled outright. 

The recommendations for a supply chain stage-gate process call for early consideration of needed supply chain changes. The initial assessment at Gate 1 is whether a supply chain change is needed at all. At Gate 2 developers should know the type of product it is in the case of a new-product situation. At this point, we believe candidate partners should be identified. The business case at Gate 3 should produce a discovery-driven plan that requires documentation of supply chain assumptions. 

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For industrial products, the remaining four steps are elucidated in Fig. 10.4-1. After the Concept Development step (see Fig. 10.3-2), preliminary product design occurs in the Feasibility step of the Stage-Gate process - which is not applicable for epitaxial thin films of silicon, as prototype thin films are normally not needed. 

Figure D9. The Stage-Gate Process from Concept to Product...

Some companies attempt to accelerate the process from idea to product launch by employing a new product scheme or a stage-gate process. The main... 

Follow below a typical five Stage-Gate process ... 

Because of the importance of these decisions many companies have elected to have a formalized process to review projects and decide which projects should be supported and which should be discontinued. Without a rigorous method, the wrong projects often get selected. Instead of decisions being based upon facts and objective criteria, they are often based upon company politics and emotion with the end result that too many fail [9]. One of these formalized processes was introduced by Robert Cooper and is called the Stage-Gate process. It is described in his popular book first introduced in 1998 and now in its fourth edition [10]. 

The feedback arrows in Figure 12.3 illustrate internal "check-act" activity throughout the project. We find that the "stage-gate" process discussed in Chapter 27 in relation to new-product development is also of value in supply chain improvement projects. With multiple projects under way, gates in the flow shown in Figure 12.3 assure timely completion of deliverables. A section later in this chapter will focus in how to perform Phase 1. But first, we recommend a project structure for participation. 

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