## 4 Case Study
### Stage 1: NPD Process Evaluation
#### 4.1.2 NPD Process Analysis and Evaluation  
The evaluation process includes mapping the company's work routines based on data acquired from a series of semi-structured interviews with relevant information holders, involving employees mainly from the system engineering, R&D, and production divisions. During the case study, ten interviews were conducted with key informants identified in the initial meeting (e.g., head of production engineering, head of R&D, chief information officer, etc.). Regarding the sampling strategy, informants had key responsibilities in the new product development processes. Interviews were conducted face-to-face and remotely, each lasting between one and two hours. In the first step, only informants with a broad perspective were interviewed, and in the following steps, with the aim of gaining deeper insights into the problems discovered, we identified additional, more specialized informants. This process continued until the additional data produced only minimal new information. To ensure rigorous processing, all interviews were recorded, anonymized, transcribed, and consolidated into a case study database. Along with interviews, other evidence sources were explored. Examining archival records and artifacts provided further insight into the issues at hand; data were additionally collected through participatory observations during visits to the company. The collected data were analyzed by researchers to interpret and structure them. Subsequently, the analysts assessed the compliance of the company's work routines with managerial and engineering approaches, methods, and concepts declared as best practice standards for the specific domain, which were sublimated through the characterizations presented in the model. The estimations were modeled by linguistic variables, in accordance with the scale provided in Table 2. Figure 6 visually represents the evaluation findings, the blue area refers to NPD practices that were excluded after tailoring the questionnaire to align with company characteristics. The findings are briefly discussed below. Enhancement potential was measured by the gap between the currently applied practice in a certain domain and the best practices standard (disparity between the assigned compliance rate and the highest level of sophistication on the evaluation scale, i.e., between corresponding IT2F values). The results can be found in Table 10.  
Among the domains exhibiting low compliance with best practice standards are knowledge management, supply chain integration, integrating sustainability principles, and internal integration. Some of the main issues detected through NPD evaluation are briefly reported below. Namely, the company encounters issues regarding knowledge formalization and dissemination. Beyond basic IT tools, no sophisticated methods exist for storing, accumulating, and disseminating knowledge; moreover, knowledge is mostly not codified through systematic mechanisms, resulting in it remaining tacit among individuals. Moreover, knowledge continues to be fragmented in isolated silos, primarily due to the low interoperability of the existing systems. Additionally, there are no effective mechanisms for identifying and effectively assimilating potentially valuable knowledge from external sources into product development processes intended for knowledge reconfiguration and commercialization. Concerning the supply chain integration, there is a lack of effective inter-organizational coordination mechanisms that enable consistent exchanges of up-to-date information, knowledge transfer, effective cooperation, and synchronized processes with suppliers. For instance, suppliers are not provided real-time access to relevant product development data (Bill of Materials (BOM), Computer-Aided Design (CAD) data, requirements, or engineering change records); consequently, they often operate with inconsistent or outdated data, which causes delays and expensive redesigns.