Faster new product development through improved engineering, R & D perfarmance-Indian Institute of Management: Banglore.

Abstract

• Brakes India is the Market leader in the Brake Industry in India, and known for quality products. In the changing scenario of economic liberalisation, many new model & range of vehicles are introduced simultaneously in the Indian market. Most of the customers (with global vehicle manufacturer tieup) are demanding quick response, high quality and low cost new products. • The Key areas, in the new product development chain are, Design, Manufacturing (for prototype development) and testing, before submitting to the customer. The new product development starts from design and completed by testing before the submission of samples to the customer. Hence Engineering, R & D department, plays a major role in the new product development • Mapping of all the new project target time, with in the required time frame (with respect to the company's over all plan and customer requirement) is becoming very difficult. Hence there is need to manage multi projects and optimise the lead time. • The deployment of resources under the uncertain environment (with sudden surges in the number of new projects) is becoming important. The future planning is also depends on this evaluation. • There is a need to cater to more internal customers (several product based profit centres and many satellite units) and some of the time has to be devoted to TQM (continuous improvement activities) and QS 9000 activities. Hence the resource utilisation and allocation is a major bottleneck.