SM Thacker & Associates

Highlights of our full range of training courses / Workshops:

Lean & Agile Supply Chain / Inventory Modelling

Lean & Agile Manufacturing Planning & Control

Operations Management / Team Leader Training

Step Change Management / Business Process  Reengineering

Continuous Improvement

Procurement (Purchasing & Supplier Management)

IS / IT / e-commerce

Product Management / New Product Introduction  / Quality  Management

Bookmarks for this topic below:

Our full range of training

Expert Systems / Tools

Relevant Further Reading

Expert Systems / Tools:

Coming soon

Relevant Further Reading: The following further articles were mentioned in this paper:

a. Permanently Maintained Website Articles:

New Product Introduction process

six steps to near perfect quality

b. Previously Featured Articles from our Archives (Up to 2 per organisation available on request):

Previous Best Practices:

Previous Techniques:

Previous Questions:

Previous Malpractices:

Training Courses & Workshops to support

Product Management / New Product Introduction / Quality Management

Our Training Philosophy and Approach

The following 7 training courses are available (linked to highlights below). They can be readily tailored to suit individual requirements for in-house workshops.

D01 New Product Introduction (NPI)

(2 days) (Course Schedules), (Request course details)

Designed for:

All levels of management, designers and staff in design and development

Course Objectives:

If you do not have a pipeline of new products, you are probably already becoming irrelevant. If you do not have a way of managing that pipeline to drive a development programme, then you are taking huge risks. In the same way as having operations processes, you also need a development process in order to manage your future as a business!

This course provides the key tasks, tools and techniques in order to generate & manage the implementation of a stream of market led, technically and commercially viable new products to support the business plan, with minimum risk, time to market and where products & processes are legal, healthy, safe & environmentally friendly, by showing you:

• A detailed roadmap for the introduction of a New Product Introduction process
• A detailed roadmap to implement an integrated product development approach
• Tips on how you can identify weaknesses in your own development processes
• An insight into 23 simple tools & techniques to employ at various stages in the development

Course Highlights:

This course will help you to:

• Understand the purpose of an NPI process and symptoms of a good and bad process
  • Develop simple methods of creating up to date project status and exception reporting
  • Ensure a managed stream of new products
  • Discriminate between research and development
  • Define risks ahead of time
  • Define roles
  • Conduct routine milestone reviews to assess:
    • the likelihood of success
    • estimates to completion
    • risk changes
  • Launch products successfully
• Define "SMART" product development objectives for each new product
  • Define required product performance objectively
    • Scope / de-scope product requirements
    • "Chunk" developments to create manageable deliverables at each milestone
    • Reduce "time to market"
  • Avoid "mission creep"
  • Avoid over-engineering
  • Limit product recalls
• Manage developments effectively using:
  • 8 NPI staged processes
    • Set "SMART" key process objectives
  • 9 Milestones
    • Define objective assessment criteria for each stage
  • And their associated 23 tools and techniques
• In order to implement a process which:
  • Accelerates developments likely to succeed
  • Highlights the others at the earliest time

Examples of course participant's feedback:

• "Well presented and easy to follow"
• "A reality check"
• "Very good - Well presented and interactive without putting anyone on the spot"
• "Very informative and useful - Every stage broken down in detail"
• "We now have the material to support the whole process from start to finish - Break down of processes, simplification of tasks, checklists, etc."
• "A wake up call!"

D02 Specification Change Management:

(Managing Product, Computer Programme, Documentation, or Process changes)

(1 day) (Course Schedules), (Request course details)

Designed for:

All levels of product and process design and planning, computer programmers, documentation management personnel and Business Process Re-engineering or ERP implementation teams working in these areas

Course Objectives:

When you introduced your new product, you conducted exhaustive testing, approvals, and coordinated its introduction to reduce risk. Do you do proportionately the same for product or program changes?

This course provides the key success factors and a detailed roadmap for the implementation of a specification management process enabling you to:

• Effectively coordinate the implementation of product, computer programs, documentation, or process, changes
• Ensure that changes are implemented smoothly and risks reduced

Course Highlights:

This course will help you to:

• Manage the trade off between the desire to change and the barriers to change and the need for stability and reliability
• Meet (or exceed without over-engineering) the requirement (The Product Design Parameters) as part of a Product Management Process
  • Maintain "required performance" throughout product life cycle
• Co-ordinate & control modification to minimise cost, risk, and expedite changes effectively & efficiently as part of a Quality Management Process
  • Prioritise and manage a pipeline of related and unrelated changes
  • Change computer programs without burning bridges
  • Define the difference between a fault or bug and a feature or enhancement
  • Minimise obsolescence or shortages, caused by changes
  • Effectively coordinate the implementation of product, computer programs, documentation, or process changes smoothly and painlessly
  • Construct a repeatable test plan and ensure that you are testing the critical changes comprehensively
• Know previous, current, and planned, technical description and capabilities of the item and its constituent parts
  • Provide a life history of all changes to the point of embodiment (including the next change)
  • Provide traceability of modifications
  • Reduce the risk of a product recall
  • Manage controlled circulation of products / programs / documents effectively
  • Manage versions from inception to a service list
• Design your own Product or Process management process or diagnose problems in your current process

Examples of course participant's feedback:

• "Very informative and helpful"
• "Well presented, clear and concise"
• "The change management section was really useful"
• "Excellent - The testing stages / prioritisation / corrective action sections will help a lot"
• "Everything we need - This content will support the introduction of our change control processes"
• "The version control / product recall section provides a good structure to coordinate changes and then reduce risk"

D03 Six Steps To Near Perfect Quality

(1 day) (Course Schedules), (Request course details)

Designed for:

All levels of personnel responsible for delivering a quality product or service and particularly for operations team leaders and quality control personnel

Course Objectives:

You have, no doubt, heard of "quality control". But what about "quality planning and prevention" to minimise the need for quality control?!

This course provides an insight into the prerequisites, culture, structure, processes and organisation required to achieve near perfect quality.

Course Highlights:

This course will help you to take the six steps to near perfect quality (quality control being step six) as follows:

1. Establish the real need (customer perceived value criteria)
2. Create a quality culture, where expectations are high (a superior standard) and accountability is clear
3. Set up a collaborative, quality planning process to reduce risk & variables, increase capability, and manage change
4. Define & agree the "best" method & learn from the best
5. Institutionalise the best method by standard working / procedures / documentation / training / auditing
6. Set up a quality control process which manages problems, near misses, & non conformance, focuses effort on prevention, establishes root causes and drives improvement

Examples of course participant's feedback:

• "Excellent day - The most useful yet"
• "A lot to think over and implement"
• "A different approach to quality"
• "Makes you realise the importance of quality PLANNING"
• "Well presented - Informative - Very good trainer"
• "Makes you look at quality as a complete process"
• "The discussion on tolerances made me wonder if we are making things too difficult for ourselves"

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Bookmarks for this topic above:

Our full range of training

Expert Systems / Tools

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