New product development: implementing best practices, dissemination and human factors

New product development is a major responsibility of the production functions just as much as it is for the design, development, marketing and other functions. Indeed, the best new product development practices are, of course cross-functional. Improvements to new product development come about by the dissemination of information on best practices. Implementing these improvements usually requires changes in personal and group behaviour as well as working styles. These adaptations are often found difficult. Thus it is useful if the means of dissemination can also help individuals and companies alike to make these adaptations easier. Effective dissemination needs definite means of passing on information and ideas. Also, excellent framework models are required for enabling the best presentation, understanding and discussion. In this paper, means of dissemination are discussed and recommended framework models are presented. Work at the National University of Singapore is briefly described. Some of the critical, pitfall and often-overlooked aspects of best practice implementation and human factors are discussed. Finally, some reported benefits of good dissemination and implementation are described. It is intended that this paper will be of particular help to individuals and companies who are striving to improve new product development and enhance the resulting growth of new business.