OK. I admit I was wrong.
The wild swing in the economy continues. My belief back in the spring
was that nearly everybody would have significantly stepped up their
NPD project efforts by now. Yet few companies have opened the hiring
spigot for NPD resources. Sure, some have. But the story is that most
have not.
The issue that senior NPD managers continue to face is pretty simple:
"Do more with less". I wish I had a dollar for everyone
who has relayed this to me. (You can find my address on my website).
The "do more with less" mantra has also greatly affected the large
NPD consulting firms. Thank goodness that Adept has the fortune of
being well under the radar screen in fees and project durations. Sure
the economy has affected us, but not like it has the big firms.
The challenge remains the same. How can you do more NPD with the same
or less resources? Based on everything I know about NPD and on my
experience in processes, tools, approaches and even obscure practices
and systems, the one area that offers the most potential is Portfolio
and Pipeline Management (PPM)... consistent, well thought
out PPM. This is a very fertile area for organization to make
significant gains. But it is not a simple effort. Senior managers
must recognize that it involves more than just a single person to
do it.
PPM requires an organizational effort. Here
are a few of the insights that I discovered from analyzing our recent
survey of some 175 companies:
- Organizations must first include
reliable resource data on the vast majority(>85%)
of their NPD projects within their PPM efforts
before notable benefits accrue
- There is little gain in using
project priority lists to assign people
to projects just some of the time. Only with disciplined
and consistent use of prioritization do organizations
gain meaningful benefits.
- Organizations gain benefit from
PPM by transitioning through data storage
techniques: from no data storage ----> to data storage
in multiple excel / access ---> to data storage in
a single database ---> to central storage for
a web-based system. Jumping to a web-based system is problematic.
- There are three key turning points
in the accrual of benefits from PPM implementation:
1) the consistent use of portfolio mix criteria, 2) the
consistent use of resource and bottleneck forecasts, and
3) the centralization of data n projects and resources
(a repository). You have to nail these to make real headway.
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I've learned a great deal from the research and I am happy to share
it. If you wish to see more on these PPM insights, email
to: info-request@adept-plm.com
Yes. Adept is in business to profit from helping companies in their
NPD efforts. The findings from our research are already in our teaching
and consulting work. And I know, based on our research and experience,
that what Adept offers is very sound in providing meaningful value
against the "do more with less" challenge.
Our PortViewTM software is one example. This tool
gives organizations the means to visualize their NPD opportunities
and constraints. Put into process, PortView assists top managers
working out the "political agreements" on key trade-off decisions.
This is a critical step forward in an organization's implementation
effort. Those working toward consistent use of portfolio mix criteria
know the difficulty of doing so without such political agreement.
Each PortView license is priced to fit on a credit card and
some organizations need only a single license. The software is written
in what's called 'array processing language' and visual basic. It
reads your data, does strategic bucket groupings and calculations
while enabling you to create incredibly insightful graphical views.
The views may be placed in PowerPoint slides for distribution and
presentation to top management. Its intuitive interface, speed and
simplicity enable users to make and display changes very fast.
PortView is not a "total, integrated solution". But everything
our research suggests on Portfolio and Pipeline Management is that
organizations need to transition (through things like political
agreements on trade-off decisions) to the point that they can benefit
from an integrated solution. As a point of reference, consider some
of the current PortView users like Intel, Johnson and Johnson,
and Pharma (now Merck). Each is in transition toward a fully integrated
system and process. PortView is helping them get there.
Check out PortView by clicking here. PortViewTM
I am also very excited about our product called NPD.MetricsLinkTM,
an XML-based data and metric gathering tool. While visualizing metrics
is one challenge, gathering them is another. Because the tool is
highly flexible and loads metrics directly from the web to Excel,
NPD.MetricsLink greatly reduces the time delays and the hassles
of getting metrics. Equally important, it helps project managers
speed the input of the data that PPM requests them to submit.
Once again, NPD.MetricsLink is not a total, integrated solution.
It is, though, highly affordable and it greatly satisfies the challenge
of gathering metrics. NPD.MetricsLink also helps organizations
transition to a fully integrated system with "politically stable"
metrics. Click here to learn more about NPD.MetricsLink email to:
npd.metricslink@adept-plm.com
"Do more with less" is NPD management's top issue. Firms like The
Adept Group can deliver against this challenge. Whether it's licensing
one of our tools or simply engaging us for a day to share our insights
and pick our brains, The Adept Group can help organizations quickly
achieve the benefits they are striving for.
Perhaps the increase in NPD productivity happening in most organizations
will help shift this economic funk to the positive. There is no
doubt that it will take extraordinary intelligence, considerable
hard work and a bit of serendipity. Stick with it though. You can
"do more with less", especially when you embrace smart PPM
practices and tools.
I hope your summer has been as productive and engaging as mine.
My Best Regards,
Paul
O'Connor
The Adept Group Limited, Inc.
Tel: 904-273-5319
Fax: 904-285-3488
www.adept-plm.com
Focused on Productivity in New Product
Development
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