Phased project management is seductively pleasant. It maintains a sense of order and it keeps everyone busy. But it's a slow process and it develops products that may be hard to make and that don't meet marketplace needs. Getting a product into the marketplace a few months late can make the difference between success and failure in today's highly competitive environment. The point is not that we have to spend more money on new product development, rather that we have to spend it smarter, getting a greater yield from each dollar spent.
Companies have to start to develop a parallel approach to new product development.
Parallel in the sense that all the key players in the development process have to be involved at the same time. This requires a great reliance on teams. Using teams and coupling fast product development to fast manufacturing start-up is the way to go. This approach gets new products to the marketplace before the competition and that means greater market share and higher prices. Parallel fast product development can yield significant benefits.