Challenges in managing new product introduction projects: An explorative case study

In today’s market conditions, manufacturing companies are under pressure to constantly launch new products or product variants to the market in short intervals. The introduction of new products poses managerial implications on the existing production systems and their processes. Hence, the production organisations are increasingly involving in the new product development since the beginning of the project as they are responsible for the product introduction. The project management of new product introduction therefore play a significant role in the success of new product development. The existing literature covers a wide range of issues and disturbances in the product introduction process in different industries. However, little research exists on the management of new product introduction projects from a project management perspective especially from the viewpoint of production. Based on a case study at a manufacturing company, this paper examines the challenges in managing new product introduction projects in the production organisation. The study identified nine key challenges in the management of new product introduction projects which are associated to the resources, time-readiness and schedule, gated administration, ways of working, communication and time-sharing, learning, business case, co-ordination and alignment, and competences.