Course content

Product development in a strategic and operational business perspective, The different schools of product development. Managing innovation and new product development. Product portfolio management. Ideation and concept generation in early phases. Human-centered design. Design Thinking; Knowledge-based (Lean) product development. Knowledge acquisition and transformation processes. Knowledge based engineering (KBE). Engineering collaboration methodology. Different tools used in product development. Innovation and new product development best-practices. Case examples.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:
The course will give the student knowledge of the topics listed below.
-Overall, provide a basis for employing relevant NPD theory, methods and industrial best-practice to solve research-based problems in succeeding MSc project, including:
- Understanding of the role of New-product development (NPD) as a system of process, people and technology within a business/company
- NPD methodologies employed to improve NPD outcomes, including collaborative strategies
- Principles for managing and organizing NPD within the context of a company
- The underlying philosophies of different strategies employed for exploration and exploitation phases of NPD
- Insight into the construct of different practical tools leveraged for improving productivity in NPD
- The fundamentals of Design Thinking, Human-Centered Design, Lean Product Development, and Knowledge-Based Engineering
-Awareness of how the people aspect becomes an increasingly important part of NPD
-Familiarity with knowledge acquisition and transformation processes
- Understanding of the importance of integrating the production value stream and the knowledge value stream
-Taking the theories to industrial practice; including research state-of-the-art, implementation strategies and company cases.

Skills:
The student shall master the topics listed below.
Overall, demonstrating capability in scientifically and systematically dealing with NPD challenges faced to succeed in their MSc project, including:
-To apply the gained insight for improving efficiency and effectiveness in NPD
-To determine what creates value under different circumstances and use this understanding as a basis for making decisions
-To know the applicability of the different concepts and methodologies to different phases of the NPD process as well as contexts
-To manage the use of an assortment of NPD tools and methods for "doing-the-right-things-right".

General competence:
The student shall understand the basics of NPD and its relationship and interfaces with other parts of the business system. Based on this competence s/he shall be able to deal with and participate in systematic NPD improvement initiatives at company, team and individual levels. In summary, the primary goal is to develop a basis for managing and executing NPD tasks in general.

Learning methods and activities

Lectures, demonstrations, problem exercises and project-based problems. If there is a re-sit examination, the examination may be changed from written to oral.

Compulsory assignments

• Assignments

Recommended previous knowledge

The fundamental topics of mechanical engineering including TMM4115 Engineering modeling, TMM4121 Engineering design and TMM4245 Fuzzy Front End. The course is open only for students currently taking their specialization project.

Course materials

Information is given at the start of the semester.