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While it is widely recognized that the introduction of new products has an increasingly greater importance on sales as well as on profits, specialized literature reports that only one in seven new projects delivers successful products.
Thanks to its superior technology and to the sharp focalization on customers’ future needs, the SAES Getters Group has always enjoyed market success in the development and introduction of new products. To continue this tradition in a market environment which is characterized by increasing complexity and rapid technological changes, SAES Getters has recently updated and implemented a more formalized process to select and run new projects in the frame of the R&I function.
The new product development (NPD) process is based on the Stage-Gate®1 methodology. This approach helps identify, organize, deploy and control the steps necessary to ensure the effective and efficient implementation of new projects, with the ultimate goal to improve the chances for product success and reduce time-to-market.
Particularly, the innovation process articulates in a string of phases of activities (stages) and of assessments and decisions (gates). The project selection process is based on criteria aimed at maximizing the chance of success by deep assessment of a number of technical, economical and strategic parameters.
Key principles of SAES Getters’ adoption of the Stage-Gate methodology are:
- production of superior, differentiated products
- continual interaction with customers and users throughout the development process
- solid planning and sharp, early product definition before development begins
- cross-functional effort and empowered project leaders and teams
- tough go/kill decisions at the gates to focus resources on the most promising projects
- facilitation of clear project prioritization and resource allocation
The Stage-Gate NPD process requires the contribution of different functions within the Group, from research to engineering, from intellectual property protection to marketing, supervised by a steering committee. A dedicated resource, the multi-project portfolio manager, coordinates the entire process and ensures it is evenly, correctly and timely carried out.
The SAES Getters Group values the implementation of this new innovation management system as a great asset to continue the successful tradition in product innovation that has distinguished the company throughout its entire business history.
1 Stage-Gate® is a trademark of Jens Arleth, Innovation Management U3 and Robert G. Cooper. |