Chemicals Manufacturer

SITUATION

Largest domestic producer of polyester microfiber needed a method of identifying projects with market potential and fast-tracking their development with appropriate resource allocations.

DRIVER GOAL

Restructure the product portfolio from 20% to 80% proprietary.
Deploy a consistent methodology to evaluate new product potential.
Build an integrated New Product Introduction stage gate process.

RESULT

Accelerated product development and new product introduction, bettering promised commercialization dates by 50%.
Conserved $4 million in scarce development.

Case Study

Optimize Time-to-Market Cycle

Issue

The largest domestic producer of polyester microfiber, facing increased and significant competitive pressure, needed an effective method of identifying projects with market potential and fast-tracking their development with appropriate resource allocations.

Highland Approach

The Highland Group developed and implemented a product portfolio management process that focused investments on the highest-value-adding products; a revised approach to planning, developing and going to market with new products, including a new consolidated organization and governance structures; and a series of tools to help measure and optimize product portfolio value.

Actions Taken

Convened a Product Development Council.
Consolidated technical resources, resolved conflicting goals and fostered the design of the revised development process.
Reviewed planned new products.
Customized a stage gate development process.
Developed the quality functional deployment matrices of customer and market channels.
Redesigned the Request for Quote and Product systems.
Delivered the high definition screening tools required to verify customer content requirements.
Developed a design analysis process to screen, control, evaluate and approve compliance.
Identified and delivered toolkits of analytical procedures and methods.
Realigned and rewrote Engineering procedures.
Implemented all processes in Development Unit environment.