Executive Summary

New product development (NPD) is the period utilised to describe the entire method of conveying a new merchandise or service to market. There are two aligned paths engaged in the NPD process: one engages the idea lifetime, product conceive, and minutia engineering; the other engages market study and trading analysis. Companies normally glimpse new merchandise development as the first stage in generating and commercializing new products inside the general strategic method of merchandise life cycle administration utilised to sustain or augment their market share.

New product development Business Research Proposal

Problem Statement

Although there is plentiful anecdotal evidence that customer support is an absolutely vital facet in the trading of numerous products, the relationship between clientele support requirements and new product development (NPD) is not amply understood.

Research Questions

The need for assessing clientele support throughout NPD is clear but preceding study had the limitations which were discussed. Therefore, the following study inquiries were identified:

What are the main elements of customer support in different industries? How are these connected to the characteristics of representative products?

Is customer support important for both easy and convoluted products?

How do companies evaluate support obligations throughout new merchandise development?

Hypothesis

To investigate the role of after-sales support in five different sectors - covering both simple and complex products.

To enquire how different companies assess clientele support requirements during new merchandise development

Literature Review

The literature review shows that in table I has five aspects of the management of customer support on which papers and books have been published. Customer support strategy consists of writings on how support contributes both to the competitive advantage of companies, the achievement of customer satisfaction and the generation of revenues - there is often a difficult balance to be achieved between the latter two points. In recent years there has been increasing recognition of the strategic importance of customer support to manufacturers (Knecht et al., 1993, 125).

It is significant not only to address customer support requirements early in NPD but also to make a comprehensive evaluation. The early evaluation of all aspects of product support at the design stage has been termed Design for Supportability (DFS-II) by Goffin (1998, 38). To achieve this, it has been recognised that engineers with experience of customer support should be involved in product development (Hull and Cox, 1994, 96), as “by participating in the development stage, the after-sales group can add substantial value by making the equipment more 'maintenance-friendly”' (Knecht et al., 1993, 85). However, a survey showed that customer support personnel were only “occasionally involved in new product work” (Page, 1993, 852). In addition, research has shown that many companies do not consider product support until relatively late in the development cycle (Goffin, 1990, 96). Low involvement of customer support personnel in NPD can lead to products that are difficult to repair and which have excessive warranty and service costs (Anthoney and McKay, 1992, 135).

Teresko (1994, 65) discusses serviceability (ease of product maintenance and repair) and product design, suggesting that “a new design idea is surfacing in the market battle for ...