A recent study conducted by the IEEE Engineering Management Review yielded interesting feedback about how the Review is regarded and what new initiatives might further serve its readers' needs and interests. The results are both encouraging and challenging. One clear response is that for many, the Review is a preferred, and in some instances the only, source of management information for practicing engineers. Another finding, less surprising, is that a world of need persists among practicing engineers formore information and perspective regarding the practice, management, and strategic role of engineering. A number of comments, criticisms, and suggestions have been offered that will factor into the Review's evolution. It is reassuring that literally all feedback was carefully considered and highly constructive. Thanks.
One very specific request, repeated several times, was for the Review to dedicate an issue to New Product Development (NPD). The issue you have in your hands seeks to accomplish just that. But it has also become clear to this magazine's editor that this current effort merely frames an entry into the matter. The topic is a huge one and readers should expect to see it visited again from other perspectives.
In fact, you can help. Let us know what aspects of NPD should be addressed next time, and if you have read articles that have been particularly enlightening, tell us about them (d.wells@ieee.org).
NPD Is Funky . . .
The thing that we probably like most about all this fuss is that it places engineers at the top of the heap. It is like the space program allover again so far as romanticizing a profession by its product. New power generation, new automobiles, and faster-cheaper computers and communications are all to be celebrated and put right to work. They speak of vision, ability, and competitiveness.
But Fundamentally, There Is More to It
Consider electronics for example. In the business-to-business commerce of electronic components, much of what is produced passes through businesses called distributors. Companies building instrumentation would likely purchase any needed active electronic components from distributors. The same would be true for cabling, connectors, passive electronics, and so on. You get the idea, they see most all of it.
Regarding NPD, I have heard distributors claim that over 20% of their catalog items are new each year, displacing products that have somehow become outdated. That represents a mountain of development. If this true, think of its impact on economy and competition. What if a company decided to back off on NPD and the rest of the industry did not? What if a competitor became more efficient at doing it well? It becomes clear that NPD must be done well and that its demands for engineering management are substantial.
In this issue, the Review takes a strategic look at New Product Development. As you progress through the feature articles, you will likely notice a significant coherence among the points made with- in each of them. Upon rereading them I am surprised that they fit so well together and hope that you find them as interesting as I have.
Yes, it sure is. We know this because so much of the commercial print and broadcast media tell us so. And those stories are likeable, too. Exciting stories that gamer so much of the visibility are told and retold in the business, science, technology, and people sections of publications. Stories are told about software packages, PDAs,microchips, and even sticky little pieces of notepaper. They are good stories; they confirm for the public the worth of having new products developed-and possessed. It is a useful mythology that is being created, or extended, if you think to include Boeing, Edison, Bell, and Ford (the people and the businesses) and hundreds more like them. Popular thought has it (and I agree) that technology builds economy. Presumably, that is better done with engineering new products than with engineering education alonebecause products are the product.
Beyond, or perhaps beneath, this glamorous view of NPD high-flyers is a world full of engineers cranking out a legion of new products every day; products that may be wholly uninteresting to the average member of a community. Few realize to what extent NPD is happening. Many of the products may seem relatively minor in comparison, but once they have apparently improved on something, they employ others in their manufacture, and they are purchased and placed in service.