Abstract
Since new product development projects face high mortality rates, it is crucial to select the most appropriate product portfolio to effectively allocate limited R&D resources to the projects with the greatest potential. In addition, unpredictable incidents occur during new product development (NPD) processes, which cause expenses, resources and schedule overruns. Traditional project management tools lack of efficient and effective methods to solve these problems and challenges. Therefore, this study presents a methodology for product development strategy and performance evaluation considering multi-objectives and resource constraints. There are three parts in this research. The first part is to develop an analysis methodology of product portfolio management to assist R&D managers in creating the most appropriate product portfolio strategy. For the evaluation of NPD projects, this study uses fuzzy hierarchical analysis (FHA) to determine criteria weights and then applies fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (FMCDM) to select the R&D projects with the greatest potential and highest value. Considering the interactions of risk and resources within a set of projects, a group concept is used to evaluate resource requirements and potential risks of product portfolios. In respect of the profit of a product portfolio, this study considers substitution effects among products within a product portfolio to estimate the portfolio profit accurately. The second part is to put forward a benchmarking methodology to optimize a NPD process during its lifecycle. In the planning and execution phases, this research develops analytical benchmarking models and creates the modification mechanisms to optimize NPD processes. When the process is completed, the relative economical efficiency of these particular NPD processes within a product portfolio is evaluated and reviewed using data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. In the third part, this study develops the service platform architecture for product development strategy and process optimization. Finally, in order to demonstrate the methodology’s real-world application, a mobile-phone development project scenario is used as a case study to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.