Time Management of the Innovation Chain

This is the cmcial test. After all the planning, designing and manufacture will the new product be accepted with enthusiasm by the market Will it generate money that will start to pay back the investment made by the company in R D  

The marketing department drives the market launch but they need, and should receive, the full support of R D. This is provided in the form of technical support to the sales force and assistance to customers when they are first using the new product, anticipating and responding quickly to any unforeseen problems that might arise. 

Once a product has been launched R D s involvement is not over. The process for the initial manufacture needs to be improved, the learning curve followed so that costs are lowered and the profitability of the product increased. A systematic process improvement programme needs to be planned by R D and supported by the business (see also Section D, 1.2). 

The time-to-market issue is a driving force in new product development. 

Faster evaluation of a new product in the real world of the market. 

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Successful management of the innovation chain from idea to marketable product in the shortest possible time is the key task. 

With the increased importance of getting new products into the market quickly, the time-to- market issue, attempts have been made to reduce the number of decisions points and stages in a streamlined process. Time equates to money, therefore the sooner a company is able to get a product to market the sooner it can recoup its expenditure on R D. Guidelines for achieving this time reduction in the length of the innovation chain will be given, with particular emphasis on the role R D Management plays in this process. 

Having dealt with the selection and evaluation of projects for R D, the steps in the Innovation Chain and the importance of time compression management in the introduction of new products, the next topic to cover is the management of projects, with particular emphasis on the managerial skills that are required. 

One example of contingency approach applied to supply chain management comes from Fisher (1997). He proposes a framework to define what is the best supply chain for a company s product He argues that the first step in devising an effective supply chain strategy is to consider the nature of the demand for the products. To that end, many aspects are important for example, product lifecycle, demand predictability, product variety, and market standards for lead time and service. He proposes to classify products on two categories They are either primarily Functional or primarily Innovative, as summarized below ... 

Refer, for example, to Panayides Venus Lun (2009), who find that trust influences supply chain performance through innovativeness. Therefore, it is important for managers to raise trust in the supply chain in order to build a beneficial environment. Barratt (2004) frames successful supply ch collaboration by strategic and cultural elements. He names trust as one of four key cultural elements of supply chain collaboration. The framework of Barratt (2006) can give implications for integrating the quantification approach with cultural determinants, such as trust, in respect of time. 

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