In many large corporation focused on developing innovative products, R&D is constituted as a separate department. Research and development’s job is to offer scientific and engineering efforts to develop new products and improve the aspects of existing products.
This further calls for structuring product line and adjusting product features to fit customer wants and this is something that is of prime concern both for the sales as well as for the production department. Proper harmony must exist thus between these departments and this can be achieved in various ways.
One way can be through the new product department route that has the responsibility of developing new products through coordination of R&D, production and sales and marketing personnel. The second way can be through new product managers. The one-person units can be responsible for developing new products by coordinating with the R&D, production and sales.
The third way can be through new product project management team that is composed of persons home based in other departments brought together to work for new product. The fourth way can be through constitution of product development committee. Coordination needs to take place at the lower levels of the organizational hierarchy.