Ph.D David L. Rainey
Chair, The Hartford Department
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Lally School of Management
and Technology
biography
"The goals of innovative product development in transition"
The current goals in product development are to minimize time, investment and financial risks during development. Decisions should be made on the basis of detailed analyses and tests in order to avoid errors and prevent problems from arising in the first place. Another goal is to continuously evaluate and improve products to ensure high quality and a long product life cycle.
"Leading product development methods"
A well-known method is Design for Six Sigma, which aims to achieve high quality and customer satisfaction. The main advantage of virtual product development is short development times. The Design for Sustainability method helps to reduce risks and at the same time increase the service life of the product. Lean management, on the other hand, involves suppliers and customers in production, marketing and quality assurance.
"Trends in innovative product development"
The initial trend is that quality requirements will continue to rise. In addition, the development of defect-free products is becoming increasingly important due to high warranty claims and the high costs of legal disputes. In addition, information technology favors ever shorter development times.
Status: Beginning of 2006