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MEASUREMENT TOOLS FOR RAPID DEVELOPMENT
Author(s) -
Goldense Bradford L.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
incose international symposium
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-5837
DOI - 10.1002/j.2334-5837.1996.tb02114.x
Subject(s) - new product development , product (mathematics) , computer science , process (computing) , metric (unit) , product lifecycle , product engineering , process management , manufacturing engineering , systems engineering , industrial engineering , data science , product design , engineering , operations management , business , mathematics , marketing , geometry , operating system
The state of measurement of product development in the 1990s is still largely historical and reactive, but at least measurements are now being made. Measurement is central to improvement. For the past twenty‐five years there has been relatively little improvement in product development productivity. Now the first emergence of predictive and/or proactive metrics are changing fundamental thinking towards the use of measurements to drive product development change, not just to record results. This trend in product development is analogous to the evolution of measurement during the 1980s in the manufacturing‐based functions. Also analogous, is that the product development focus is on measuring processes and not just the resultant product. Comprehensive approaches require metrics for ten to fifteen separable but interrelated business and/or technical processes that comprise product development. Case studies from medical, process control, instrument, and semiconductor companies illustrate measurement approaches and applications of specific metric tools and techniques. Product development metrics will evolve over time to a now unforseen science once a great number of companies cut their cycle time in half. Metrics and measurement tools deployed today will ultimately be considered rudimentary two decades from now.