Developing a self assessment audit to support product innovation management

Abstract

Product innovation is critical to the success of most design and manufacturing enterprises. It is widely recognised that effective co ordination, organisation and management affects product innovation success rates. Self assessment audits can help managers and decision makers ascertain whether they are incorporating best practices in their product innovation processes. This paper presents a new approach to managing product development activities based on our research which, centres around the Product Innovation Management (PIM) model. From this, a product innovation scorecard is developed. This scorecard enables organisations to measure their performance in terms of product innovation management against best practice. It provides an overview of a company¿s strengths and areas for improvement with regard to product innovation management, highlighting those areas that require attention. In this view, it serves as a checklist for product innovation management. The product innovation scoredcard is presented and tested using case study analysis.