Recent Surveys and Studies

Design engineering in a changing world

WTC, Meritus Consulting and The Conference Board announce results from joint new product development survey

Based on responses from more than 130 chief executives, vice presidents and engineers within the telecommunications, automotive, aerospace, consumer goods, high tech electronics, chemical and pharmaceutical industries, this survey captures existing product development practices and techniques, as well as forecasts areas of growth and improvement required for the future.

One of the most significant trends indicated by this survey was that 49% of respondents concluded that more than half of their companies' revenue is generated by products introduced within the last five years. Recognizing that this revenue growth depends on new product development, companies have begun improving their product development activities and environments. For example, 39% of those surveyed shortened their cycle time by 25 to 50% and nearly half of the companies successfully moved 50 to 90% of their development projects to commercialized products.

Other results from this survey include the fact that over 50% of those surveyed felt that strategic planning and senior management drive new product development, not innovation. Also, nearly 50% of companies surveyed still have the same number of prototype cycles as five years ago. And, although customer satisfaction is broadly recognized as a primary driver of successful product development, the current source of customers' design requirements is primarily through sales, not through contact between the product development organization and customer.

For more information, contact Meritus Consulting Services, 1899 Powers Ferry Rd, Ste 205, Atlanta, GA 30339. 800-637-4887. http://www.meritus.com Circle 728.

IDSA publishes revamped corporate design study

The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) has published Influence and Vision -- A Corporate Design Group Study to help members compete successfully in the marketplace. This sixth edition study is an in-depth revised publication with data on how design is organized and managed in the corporate environment. The analysis compiles survey responses of 84 companies to 74 specific topics related to corporate design operations, structure and management.

The study outlines the vision necessary to present top management with alternatives that are favorable to ID; investigates how design groups are structured within the corporate setting; details budgetary impacts and constraints; summarizes the resources available to corporate design groups and those that are deemed necessary; addresses the relationships between ID groups and other departments within corporations; and describes how corporate design groups retain and use outside consultants.

Key findings include:

• The corporate design group is generally located within the engineering or marketing division and only removed from the President/CEO by one level.
• Corporate design groups employ 1-4 full-time designers in 58% of the groups surveyed. Another 23% employ 5-10 full-time design staff.
• Most ID groups are funded separately as a single line item in the company/division budget.
• The average annual budget for ID groups across all companies is $1.9
  million.
• ID cost recovery generally takes 3-6 months.

For more information, contact IDSA, 1142 Walker Rd, Ste E, Great Falls, VA 22066. 703-759-0100. http://www.idsa.org

Circle 729.

Does R&D contribute to profits? Fewer than 40% of manufacturers know.

While global competition is forcing companies to reduce product life cycles, most manufacturers have only a rudimentary idea of how to measure their new product development efforts. This finding is from a recent study by the management consulting firm Goldense Group, Inc. (GGI), Cambridge, MA.

GGI collected data on metrics used by product research and development (R&D) centers throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Working in conjunction with The Management Roundtable of Lexington, MA, GGI surveyed 190 companies that produce medical, electronics, automotive and industrial products.

Although all responding companies performed some form of self-measurement, fewer than 40% measure new product development in relation to its contribution to the bottom line, the survey showed. Project-oriented metrics (which measure target product cost, time-to-market and target price) were used by 80% of respondents. On the other hand, metrics that tie projects to profitability such as "time to profit" or "breakeven time" were not used by most companies.

For more information, contact Goldense Group Inc, 6 Bigelow St, Cambridge, MA 02139. 617-876-6776. http://www.goldensegroupinc.com Circle 730.

Rapid Revolution: How e-commerce is changing the plastics industry

According to Forrester Research, the business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic commerce transaction value will grow from $9 billion in 1998 to $108 billion by the year 2003. In addition, the Internet and electronic commerce have helped to unleash a set of forces that is changing the fundamental manner in which businesses interact with one another: B2B electronic commerce. Its transactional value dwarfs that of B2C electronic commerce to the tune of $43 billion in 1998, growing to $1.3 trillion in 2003.

The effect e-commerce will have on the plastics and other manufacturing industries will be as dramatic in the immediate future as it has been on the digital and direct-to-consumer industries over the past several years.

For example, http://www.plasticsnet.com is one of the earliest established vertical e-marketplaces, offering not only the three Cs of content, community and commerce for the specific plastics industry, but also evolving to offer more collaborative business services such as demand forecasting support to help manage the supply chain. PlasticsNet.Com currently aggregates sellers of resins and raw materials, as well as manufacturers of machinery equipment and replacement parts, to sell to a variety of molders, extruders, thermoformers and compounders.

For more information, contact PlasticsNet.Com at 350 N. LaSalle St, Ste 1000, Chicago, IL 60610. 312-832-9330. http://www.plasticsnet.com Circle 731.

--FR