Welcome
entering the World of NEW Product Development (NPD)
Welcome to MGMT 305/ ENGGEN 405. It's not all blue sky thinking on this course but if clouds are constraints then they are not all bad because development and innovation in the real world have constraints.
How do you identify the constraints?
How do you realise their significance?
How do you work in a team?
These are just some of the questions you will be able to answer by the end of this course. You will appreciate that constraints help you in achieving a better result. You will be grateful for your team members different perspectives.
In the following text, you can read more about the goals of the course, its structure, learning and teaching, learning outcomes and assessment.
Goals of the course - Hands-on Experience
The main aim of the course is to provide students with a solid understanding and hands-on experience of the NPD process. To achieve this, the students work in multidisciplinary and team based projects with an industry partner.
Course structure - THE ITERATIVE NPD-process
Through the project work of this course you will develop a product concept that the industry partner may choose to continue developing. The course structure facilitates three iterations mirroring the processes and practices of professional NPD-teams. It includes the processes of IDEA GENERATION, EMERGENCE, CONVERGENCE and PITCH AND FEEDBACK. The first three weeks of the course focuses on idea generation, the following on emergence... and so on. Within each of these phases a complete iterative cycle will be completed itself broken into four sections which aid in the execution of a design iteration.
LEARNING AND TEACHING - THe Backbone: Lectures & Studio sessions
Learning takes place through team work, discussions, lectures, studio sessions, independent study, assignments, and written and oral presentations. The teaching team uses the lectures to discuss theoretical and applied issues, as well as the progress of the the teams' project work and other coursework activites. The studio sessions involve practical activities that are meant to foster creativity. The course website provides a broad range of electronic resources, such as lecture material and discussion forums. A number of experienced tutors mentor the project teams and brings a range of technical and business expertise into the team discussions. As team work experience is seen as an important skill of modern business professionals, team work and project management issues are carefully moderated and monitored throughout the duration of the course.
Learning outcomes - use, Integrate and Demonstrate
By the end of this course it is expected that the students will be able to:
- Present their proposed concept in a professional fashion to a business client.
- Effectively identify and prioritise key areas for design development to achieve the best commercial outcome.
- Use practical and theoretical methodologies to communicate and evaluate product ideas.
- Apply creative processes and a structured, well-managed team approach for solving a complex product development task.
- Integrate perspectives from art and design, engineering and management.
- Use their practically acquired learning to make academic knowledge more valuable.
- Use new personal skills of teamwork with others from different disciplines.
- Demonstrate experience of working with an industry partner.
- Use effective contemporary professional techniques to ensure value for a real industry derived need.
Assessment - quality and Process
The product wil develop from idea to a concept. The assessment will take into account the absolute progress towards a viable solution and also the evidence that such a solution is the right solution. The assessment will also take into account the rigour and astuteness of the process itself for each iterative progression. The tools and techniques gained during the course will be applied to this development process with an increasing expectation of the quality and depth of work presented for assessment. With other words - it is expected that the teams demonstrate a significant development from one iteration to the next.
