5 Key Factors For A Successful New Product Launch
July 9, 2012 Leave a comment
New product launches are complicated. Often there are complex information details yet to be determined while also planning for a successful launch. Ambiguity and last minute changes in forecasts, design and marketing content can negatively affect both the product quality and on-time delivery.
While launching a wide variety of new products, I have found the following 5 factors useful in combating the complex challenges inherent in new product launches.
- Communication – it is essential to create an open dialog about the goals of the launch. Understanding topics including commercialization and customization need to be fleshed out, since this will affect costs, manufacturing processes and on-time delivery. Additionally, managing expectations through asking appropriate questions, providing explicit feed back and expressing concerns about how different choices impact launch goals, is necessary.
- Flexibility – launches are dynamic, and flexibility is required to negotiate all the necessary changes involved from concept to completion.
- Scalability – The ability to create and design systems for the many possible configurations of the product’s specifications and quantities is mandatory.
- Detailed Specifications – After negotiating all the change in the planning process, it is absolutely necessary to clarify the final processing specifications. Both establishing and communicating the finalized, written specifications through out the supply chain ensures that a high quality part is created.
- Execution – Coordinating, validating and improvising provides the basis for a successful new product launch.
Instituting these 5 factors doesn’t remove the complexities of a new product launch, but it simplifies the process and helps me and my management team maintain our sanity!
What complexities have been most challenging for you and how did you overcome them?
Whether launching a new product or expanding capabilities to accommodate our clients growing needs, meeting the target price is a significant barrier to earning new revenue streams and potential profits. Sometimes we take on new business opportunities as a way to gain market share, deepen relationships or to gain an advantage over the competition. While these strategies for new business serve their purposes well, it remains essential not only to meet the target price, but also to be profitable at the target price.
This iterative process continues to deepen, creating an improvement perspective and can continue until all potential waste is removed, or can be finished when a desired target price and profit is met. The data gathered from the process can then be integrated into our decision-making models.
When designing for manufacturability one of the perceived downfalls is an increase in the cost of materials required for the design. Consider a master carton. Various designs of a master carton with similar dimensions, flute, and paperweight specifications have separate manufacturing costs. One design may require more board and another may require a more complicated die cut. Often design is viewed from a minimization of board and die cutting, leading to a cost only perspective.
Yes, yes and yes, lean manufacturing principles do apply to new product launches. In our journey to launch new products, how many times have we faced one or more of the seven wastes identified in Lean Manufacturing such as:
Validating all product packaging material is a critical step to ensure our product launches occur on time and within budget. Imagine, successfully navigating a very long and rigorous new product launch process only to discover, the launch is delayed by several weeks simply because the packaging material, such as a master carton, was not validated.
Bringing a new product to market is a storied journey with many roadblocks along the path from ideation to product launch. As the launch date approaches, more and more resources are invested. Meeting critical launch dates becomes increasingly important in achieving revenue and return on investment objectives.
New product launches require great commitment, coordination and communication among and across a diverse cross section of specialized skills. Developing teams and partnerships to navigate the complexities inherent in new product launches becomes increasingly important as demand for speed to market increases while resources to facilitate speed decrease.
