Discrete product Research & Development practices comprehensive assessment

Highlights

The evaluation questionnaire consists of 120 questions to assess your product development practices against global best practices

The entire innovation life cycle is covered, from the initial generation of the idea or collection of customer needs to the market introduction, then the analysis and rationalization of the product portfolio.

In addition, the questionnaire allows for two specific analyses:

• evaluation of "Lean Development" practices compared to other more standard practices
• consolidation of evaluations by type of actionable driver according to the Wevalgo organisational model

Wevalgo model for Research, Development or Engineering in discrete product industries

Brief description of the questionnaire

Strategy and roadmap

• Innovation strategy: type of content and level of detail in defining the strategy, associated objectives and strategic plans, analysis of the value of "open-innovation
• Customer and technology roadmaps: level of definition of the two roadmaps (or forecasts) and exchanges between R&D and Marketing or Sales
• Standardisation: definition and use of a standardisation policy for components, parts or products

Performance Management

• Strategic and financial management: cost management, taxes and subsidies, project cost management and ROI, activity monitoring and according to strategic profiles
• Operational management: objectives and indicators other than financial and monitoring methods

Innovation cycle

• Idea generation: management of the idea generation process
• Intellectual property: patent management and competitive intelligence process (filing, termination)
• Innovation portfolio: methods and processes for managing the portfolio of ideas, pre-studies or feasibility studies; existence of objectives and indicators, integration with individual project management
• Product portfolio: analysis of the existing product portfolio, product life cycle and coordination with the innovation portfolio

Customer management

• Customer needs: methodologies used to identify customer needs and test ideas from within
• Requirements management: management of customer needs and their transcription into functional specifications, prioritisation of needs, monitoring compliance with specifications
• Change management: management of change requests from the customer (needs) or internally (technical specifications, design, etc.)

Project management

• Project team: structuring, roles and responsibilities, reporting and physical location
• Project tracking: project meetings, indicators, management methodology, risk management, visual management
• Planning: level of definition and effective use of schedules, resource requirements, progress indicator
• Subcontractors and suppliers: management and monitoring processes for subcontractors and suppliers, roles and responsibilities, procurement and R&D coordination

Organisation and people

• Organisational structure: geographical (if several sites) and local organisation, roles and responsibilities between sites or between functions, responsibility for the entire development cycle, grouping similar functions
• People and Leadership: skill and experience levels of technical staff and managers, social climate
• Competences and knowledge: Skills management and development, knowledge management and sharing
• External network: definition of a policy concerning the network with partners, suppliers.... Monitoring of the actions and effectiveness of this policy

Project process and project support

• Technical processes: level of definition and management of technical methodologies and processes (design, testing, etc.), design reviews
• Development process: level of definition and effective use of the process and development stages (stage-gate, level of flexibility and parallel developments...), risk management
• Resource allocation: definition of a resource allocation process, roles and responsibilities, capacity building and needs, objectives and indicators for monitoring allocation
• Software and tools: use of efficient and adapted tools, in phase with partners