Best Practices for New Product Introduction (NPI)
Getting high-quality products to market fast is more complicated than ever. Distributed teams using different tools and sharing information with external supplier partners makes it easy to slip up and work on the wrong design. The need to innovate and get your products first to market means that you need new product development (NPD) and new product introduction (NPI) processes that keep your internal teams and supply chain partners on the same page.
What Are New Product Introduction Processes?
NPI processes encompass the activities required to get a product to market. New product introduction processes affect many teams, product lines, and supply chain partners that are required to design, develop, test, produce, and ship products as teams move from early concepts to prototyping and volume production.
Establishing a solid, unified plan for NPI will help you meet cost, quality, and scheduling goals—while eliminating costly mistakes that can lead to excessive scrap and rework or customer complaints. A good NPI process is the foundation of any successful product launch and helps boost sales, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth. The NPI process typically follows the below phases and requires input from a cross-functional team to progress to the next phase.
- Concept/Idea
- Feasibility Study
- Design and Development
- Preproduction
- Launch/Manufacture
- Mass Production
- Improvement
Check out more of our Best Practices for New Product Introduction articles for additional insights on essential elements of the NPI process.
Impact of New Product Introduction in the Product Lifecycle
What Is New Product Development?
New product development (NPD) is the foundation for NPI. Similar to NPI, there are NPD phases that require input from various product teams from engineering to operations to supply chain partners. Everyone needs to operate in sync. Leveraging a single, controlled system of record for all impacted teams ensures a smooth transition from new product development to new product introduction. Learn more about NPD phases and the need for a solid collaboration platform to achieve your product development goals.
Break Down the Barriers to Product Innovation: The Key to New Product Development and Introduction Success
Smart companies know that well-disciplined new product introduction (NPI) processes are critical to success.
However, even these companies can suffer from NPI failure when important projects, policies, and guidelines are haphazardly managed as clumsy manual processes.
For a guide to the best practices and solutions that will make your NPI processes smoother, efficient, and more cost-effective, download this white paper.
Breaking Down the Barriers to Product Innovation
New product development and new product introduction practices have shifted drastically over the last decade, as companies have picked up the pace of innovation to survive and prosper in the face of customer demands for greater performance at a lower price, increased global competition, and more stringent regulatory requirements. Establishing a solid, unified plan for NPI and NPD will help you meet cost, quality, and scheduling goals—while eliminating costly mistakes that can lead to small issues or larger product launch failures.
Successful new products launch on time and on budget with the right process in place. It’s time to get your design teams, supply chain partners, and other stakeholders aligned.