Product manager: A decision support tool for design engineers

The new product development process is the lifeblood of all manufacturing enterprises. Many tools and techniques have been developed in an attempt to make this process more efficient and effective. However, in spite of this, product development projects are still prone to failure. A significant amount of products are delivered late, over budget and do not satisfy the real needs of the end users. In the vast majority of cases these development failures are not due to incompetent staff or inadequate equipment, rather they are a result of poor decision making capabilities. Research indicates that design engineers do not have access to sufficient relevant, timely and accurate and information necessary to make decisions and solve problems. This paper presents a software solution, referred to as Product Manager, that can help design engineers generate, access, retrieve, add value to and transfer information and knowledge in order to make informed decisions throughout the new product development process.