Agile and Data-Driven: Accelerating New Product Development Towards Optimal Financial Outcomes

In the dynamic landscape of product development, embracing change is not just a necessity, but a competitive advantage. Today, manufacturing organizations are realizing the power of new paradigms that can lead to success. For the last decade, agile new product development in software building became a norm. Introducing SaaS just accelerated the entire model of software development that already was relying on principles of agile, sprints, and quick delivery. 

Modern products are a combination of multiple tools to help create a desired outcome. Each manufactured product today is a combination of mechanical, electronic, and software components (including cloud one), so having them work together in a connected way can be super helpful. 

Let’s dig into two significant shifts: the agile methodology and the seamless linkage of product development to financial services.

The Agile Revolution in Product Development

Agile originated in the software industry, but its principles can be and have been applied successfully across various sectors. At the heart of Agile is a simple idea: break down complex projects into manageable chunks, or ‘sprints.’ This approach allows:

• Multiple Collaborations: With Agile, diverse teams come together, working in tandem to achieve specific objectives within short time frames.
• Swift Adaptation: The iterative nature of Agile means that feedback can be integrated quickly, allowing for real-time adjustments.

Linking Engineering and Procurement Processes 

Traditionally, product development and procurement services and production planning were two parallel activities that didn’t work together. I addressed it in many articles where I spoke about the need to integrate engineering and production to optimize a better data handover. Today, however, there’s an increasing demand to intertwine both domains – engineering and procurement/ planning. Here’s why:

• Procurement  Forecasting: By integrating ordering data, organizations can make more accurate predictions about a product’s profitability and ROI.
• Efficient Resource Allocation: A clear financial perspective ensures that products will be performing in an optimal way by shortening the time between engineering and procurement interactions. 

The Old Guard: Spreadsheet and Email Chaos

Before digging into new-age methods, it’s vital to understand why the current practices are falling short.

• Inefficiency: The constant back-and-forth of emails, coupled with disparate spreadsheet versions, makes it challenging to have a single source of truth. Information often gets lost or outdated.
• Fragmented Communication: Data handover between teams, especially across different organizations, is seldom smooth. Crucial details can be missed, leading to costly errors down the line.

The Future: Integrated and Collaborative Development

The future belongs to organizations that can adapt and overcome the challenges of the present. Here’s the new blueprint:

Flexible Data Management Core

Instead of siloed information, the need is for a central data repository that’s adaptable. This core should be:

• Accessible: Team members, irrespective of their role, should have access (with varying permissions) to this core.
• Scalable: As the organization grows, the data management system should expand without hiccups.

Seamless Data Integration from Design to Procurement

By blurring the lines between various stages, organizations can ensure:

• Consistency: Everyone works with the same data, ensuring uniformity in decision-making.
• Efficiency: There’s a significant reduction in time wasted in data handovers.

Embracing Collaborative Processes

With Agile at the forefront, the emphasis is on collaboration. Instead of working in isolated units, teams come together, pooling their expertise for a shared goal: stellar product development.

Check the image below. It shows you the old world vs the new world. Sending inefficient emails with spreadsheets to manage handover between designers, production planners, procurement, and managers is extremely inefficient. OpenBOM provides a collaborative environment allowing to organize work in sprits to move faster and sync teams located in different locations and organizations. 

OpenBOM Agile New Product Development

Check the picture below to see the difference between traditional waterfall and agile processes to support new product development. 

Conclusion

By focusing on connecting activities into a new agile new product development framework, OpenBOM allows manufacturing companies not only to streamline and accelerate their product development process but also to ensure they’re strategically poised for financial and economic success. Purchasing the wrong components or working with the wrong suppliers is a luxury modern manufacturing companies don’t have In a world driven by data and agility, these shifts aren’t just beneficial—they’re essential.

REGISTER FOR FREE and check how OpenBOM can help you by trying out our free 14-day trial. 

Best, Oleg