Title: Development of a knowledge sharing framework for improving the testing processes in global product development

Authors: Joseph Paul Zammit; James Gao; Richard Evans

Addresses: Centre for Innovative Product Development and Manufacturing, Faculty of Engineering and Science, University of Greenwich, Chatham Maritime, Kent, UK ' Centre for Innovative Product Development and Manufacturing, Faculty of Engineering and Science, University of Greenwich, Chatham Maritime, Kent, UK ' Westminster Business School, University of Westminster, London, UK

Abstract: As identified by Griffin (1997) and Kahn (2012), manufacturing organisations typically improve their market position by accelerating their product development (PD) cycles. One method for achieving this is to reduce the time taken to design, test and validate new products, so that they can reach the end customer before competition. This paper adds to existing research on PD testing procedures by reporting on an exploratory investigation carried out in a UK-based manufacturing plant. We explore the organisational and managerial factors that contribute to the time spent on testing of new products during development. The investigation consisted of three sections, viz. observations and process modelling, utilisation metrics and a questionnaire-based investigation, from which a proposed framework to improve and reduce the PD time cycle is presented. This research focuses specifically on the improvement of the utilisation of product testing facilities and the links to its main internal stakeholders - PD engineers.

Keywords: new product development; NPD; product testing; information management; knowledge management; knowledge sharing; communication; collaboration; UK; United Kingdom; manufacturing industry; process modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLM.2016.078853

International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management, 2016 Vol.9 No.1, pp.1 - 18

Received: 29 Dec 2014
Accepted: 19 Feb 2016
Published online: 03 Sep 2016 *

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