Research with Results: a blog from the Aberdeen Group » Product Innovation and Engineering

Is Product Analytics the Secret to More Competitive Products?

Michelle Boucher — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:43:04 +0000

While economic recovery appears to be in the wings, the market remains largely characterized by customer reserve and uncertainty. Appealing to value-conscious customers involves a combination of high quality and low cost.Balancing these needs (along with the many other demands on product development) is no small feat. In addition, stiff competitive pressures are forcing many [...]

What Does PLM Mean to You?

Michelle Boucher — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:19:01 +0000

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions have been around for many years, but when you ask someone what PLM means, you get a surprising variety in answers. Is it a set of processes? If so, which ones?Or is purely a technology solution? Getting into a debate about the definition can prove to be an interesting and [...]

Considering Switching CAD Tools? Read This First.

Michelle Boucher — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:58:20 +0000

Tight competition for emerging opportunities in a recovering, yet fragile, economy has caused many organizations to focus attention on the efficiency of their design processes.The organizations that capitalize on these opportunities most often are those that streamline product design processes while maintaining the flexibility needed to change designs on the fly. The need to balance [...]

A Global Perspective on Regulations: Differences between the Continents

Michelle Boucher — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:38:57 +0000

For almost all manufacturers, compliance with product regulatory schemes is a fact of life. While product regulations frequently serve to protect important health and environmental needs, they also often create challenges for product development teams.However, research from Aberdeen’s December 2011 report “High Quality Products that Cost Less with Simulation Driven Design“, indicates a significant break [...]

New Study: Improving New Product Development

Michelle Boucher — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:34:55 +0000

Results from Aberdeen’s Business Review, The Aberdeen Business Review Reveals…, June 2011, found that the top goal for companies was organic revenue growth. With signs that the economy is continuing to improve in 2012, this goal is even more attainable. Key to this growth is the new products a company brings to market. This means [...]

Introducing the 2012 Product Innovation & Engineering Research Agenda

Michelle Boucher — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:23:55 +0000

I would like to share with you some of my observations from the last year or so, with references to the associated research reports and explain how that will impact our 2012 Product Innovation & Engineering research practice activities. You can review my video overview of this topic as well: 2012 looks to be a [...]

Success with Simulation Driven Design: Don’t Forget to Prepare Your Staff

Michelle Boucher — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:14:48 +0000

Aberdeen’s December 2011 report, High Quality Products that Cost Less with Simulation Driven Design, shared the practices the most successful product development companies follow to help them “get it right the first time.” Simulation technologies play a key role in the better decision making that leads to successful execution of this strategy. While simulation technology [...]

Participate in an Executive Roundtable Discussion on Product Cost

Michelle Boucher — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:51:20 +0000

As I prepare for our upcoming Product Development and Delivery Executive summit, I’ve been thinking a lot about the top issues that keep executives involved with product development, up at night. One of those issues, as reported by respondents of our Using Product Analytics to Keep Engineering on Schedule and on Budget, as well those [...]

Are your top goals aligned with product development leaders?

Michelle Boucher — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:32:57 +0000

Aberdeen Group is pleased to announce the 2011 New Product Development & Delivery Leadership Summit: Innovate, Develop, Deliver taking place October 5 at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston. What are your company’s top goals for 2011? How do your goals align with your peers from around the globe? Of the manufacturers surveyed for [...]

Managing the Complexity of System Design

Michelle Boucher — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:46:33 +0000

Back in 2009, I published a study on System Engineering in which we found the top challenges of designing systems are: Lack of cross functional knowledge Difficulty predicting system behavior Ensuring all design requirements are met Early identification of system level problems Cultural changes required to work across engineering disciplines We are in the process [...]