Project Analysis

(ver: 23-Aug-2007)

Purpose

To understand the company, the project context and the project itself. To meet and interact with company team members.

Deliverables

(1) In-class presentation with overheads, followed by questions from the audience. (2) A written report that will be read by faculty and company.

Background

The purpose of the project analysis (PA) is to help the team shape its mission statement, form and realize the challenges of its product development strategy, and understand the company's current situation and strategy. Another purpose is to create an early, well-defined task which forces a close working relation between the students and the company and serves to kick-start projects. The PA includes information about the company and about the project, including a preliminary assessment of project viability. The PA is created through internal and external research. Data is gathered via interviews with company representatives, the study of company public and private (when made available) records, on-site visits of design and manufacturing operations (where feasible) and searching of relevant secondary research materials. If working with a large company, the PA should focus on the business unit with which you are working, rather than on the company as a whole, although the latter should be presented in summary form. For example, if you were working with 3M on a Scotch Tape product, your PA would concern the Scotch Tape group, with summary information on the 3M Stationary and Office Supplies Division (in which the tape group sits) and more summary information on the 3M company as a whole.

Producing a comprehensive PA requires considerable and detailed information gathering by the team. Company representatives from marketing, engineering, manufacturing, sales and finance are prepared to have student team members contact them for copies of internal company documents and interviews. For the company, this is an opportunity for their business unit to be evaluated by neutral, outside observers and the resulting report should be of value to their organization.

Procedure

Read through this document, particularly the report format section and the appendices. Formulate a strategy and plan among your team members for completing the project by the due date. Call your primary company contact to discuss and arrange interviews with relevant company representatives and review of appropriate company documents. The company contacts have seen this PA project brief and are expecting your call. Conduct interviews, read company documents, research secondary information. Assign a report editor and a presentation organizer. Outline report. Write report sections. Edit. Produce presentation. All team members read and critique final report.

Mark the first page of the report with "Confidential, Do Not Copy" in red. Make two print copies, one for your sponsor and one for the course. Deliver the hard copy to your company liaison within 24 hrs of the due date. Post a PDF version on team web site.

Report Format

Use the sectioning numbers and titles shown in bold. Reasonable deviations are permitted, but should be cleared by an instructor first. Document length will be about 20 pages single spaced (more or less).

Title page: Name of company, name of product, names of student team members, date. (1 page)
Table of Contents. (1 page)

1. The Company

1.1 Description --- Brief company description. Name, core products, customers, history, size (yearly sales, employees), locations, key business units... Like what you might see in a ValueLine report on the company. Description of business unit with which you are working, if applicable. Size (people and sales), key products, where it sits on a company organization chart. Where products are manufactured. (1-2 pages)
1.2 NPD Process --- Description of existing company new product development process. What it is, who is on product development teams, what strategy is followed. (1-2 pages)

2. The Project

2.1 Description --- Describe the project you are working on (1-2 pages)
2.2 Deliverables --- Describe in as much details as you can the expected May project deliverables.. For example, be specific in describing what form the delivered prototype will take, whether clinical trials will be part of the scope, and so on. Get buy-in from the company contact in advance. (1 page)
2.2 SWOT Analysis --- A formal Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats (SWOT) analysis for the project. If you don't know how to do a SWOT, the Wikipedia entry is a good start.

3. The Context

3.1 Existing Solutions --- How do customers currently solve the problem your product is trying to solve
3.2 Competitors --- Competitor companies: name, products, strengths, weaknesses. Restrict to domain of your project.
3.3 Information Sources --- Sources where information on existing solutions and competing products can be found. For example, titles of key trade publications, the leading trade shows (include date and location), textbooks, academic journals
3.4 Key Opinion Leaders --- Names, titles and affiliations of at least five influential people (e.g. leading cardiac surgeons for a pacemaker product) whose opinion on the field or product would be valued. These could be local, national, or international.

4. Project Asessment

Preliminary assessment by the group on project viability. Strategy, estimated cost, estimated volumes; that is, the teams own judgement about the project and the opportunity. Be honest.

Appendix

A.1 Company Sources --- Names, titles, contact information of all those in company who could help you with the project.
A.2 Company Products --- Photos and data sheets of exisiting related products from the sponsoring company.
A.3 Competitor Products --- Photos and data sheets of products from other companies that directly or indirectly compete.
A.4 References --- Sources of information used to prepare the report.

Questions to Ask

Here are questions you can ask of the company to gather data for the report. Not all questions will be relevant to all projects and there will be additional questions relevant to your project which do not appear on this list. Your team is free to use its best judgment about what to include and what not to include, keeping in mind that the primary purpose of the PA is to understand the company, its market environment, and the project context. Yes/No style questions can be answered "Always, Sometimes, Seldom, Never" and always try to get the interviewee to elaborate on short-answer questions. You may want to interview more than one person to gather multiple perspectives. The informatoin should refer to the business unit (BU) you are working with.


Company

  1. Where is the company's historic strength and competitive advantage? Engineering? Marketing? Finance? Sales? Takeovers?
  2. Company history.

Product

  1. Who are typical customers for your products (endusers and others along the chain)?
  2. What's the typical supply and distribution chain?
  3. What's the typical flow of information back to the developers from customers about the product?
  4. Who typically makes the purchasing decision for your products?
  5. In what applications are your products typically used?
  6. Where are your products made?

Competitors

  1. Who are your primary competitors?
  2. Who has what market share in markets you and they serve?
  3. Which competitor do you worry most about?
  4. What distinguishes your company from your competitors?
  5. What do customers think about your product versus your competitor's?

New Product Process

  1. Does your company have a formal NPD process? How long has it been in place? How is it updated?
  2. How is "new product" defined?
  3. Who is responsible for NPD?
  4. Are new product ideas championed by senior management?
  5. Does the NPD process tailor itself for individual projects?
  6. Who is on the NPD team?
  7. How is the NPD team leader selected?
  8. How are NPD teams rewarded?
  9. How are team decisions reached?
  10. How are customers involved in the development process?
  11. Is a stage-gate (regular checkpoints) process used?
  12. Who does the sign-off at stage-gate checkpoints?
  13. What is the average time-to-market for new products?
  14. Where do new projects come from?
  15. How are projects terminated?
  16. Are your products formally benchmarked against those of your competitors? How?
  17. What project management tools are used?
  18. Does your company have a stated new product development goal? What is it?
  19. How many new products did the company produce last year and in the last 5 years?
  20. What are the most important factors for new product success?
  21. What companies do you look towards for ideas on excellent NPD process?

Concept Generation

  1. How are ideas generated and where do they come from?
  2. Do you use customers to help generate ideas?
  3. What methods are used to decide which concept is best?

Customer Research

  1. What methods are used to determine customer needs?
  2. How is the voice of the customer integrated into the NPD process?
  3. How are non-articulated needs or customer wants determined?
  4. What other market research methods are used?
  5. Who gathers customer need data?
  6. Do you use focus groups? Which firm? Regional? National? Global?
  7. Do you use large sample phone or mail surveys? Which firm conducts?
  8. Are other quantitative survey methods used?
  9. How is data from customer interviews or focus groups analyzed?
  10. What are customer needs for a project you are working on now? How were they determined?
  11. What are your market research strengths and weaknesses?

Engineering Design

  1. What is the role of industrial design in product development?
  2. When and how are prototypes used? What form of prototypes are used?
  3. How are product materials selected?
  4. How are suppliers selected?
  5. What CAD systems are used?
  6. What engineering analysis software is used?
  7. Is rapid prototyping used? Where? What technologies?
  8. Where are paper records required during the design and manufacturing process?
  9. What are key engineering design strengths (e.g. mechanisms, electronic design......)?
  10. What are design weaknesses?
  11. When is prototyping done? What do typical prototypes look like? Are there several stages of prototyping?
  12. What are in-house resources for prototyping and model building? Typical turn-around time?

Manufacturing

  1. Where/how are current product manufactured (internal/out-sourced, location, tools, level of automation)?
  2. What volumes are typical?
  3. How is quality assessed and maintained?
  4. When does manufacturing get involved in the product development process?
  5. How are change-orders handled?
  6. What are manufacturing strengths?
  7. How do you decide what to fabricate in-house and what to contract out?
  8. What goes into the decision to purchase capital equipment for manufacturing?
  9. How are pilot runs of new products handled?
  10. What planning tools are used?
  11. How is product inventoried/shipped?
  12. How are suppliers picked and qualified?
  13. How are incoming parts or materials inspected?

Financial

  1. How are financial forecasts for new products done?
  2. Can we see a sample spreadsheet for a current product (or at least the spreadsheet headings)?
  3. What financial criteria are used to evaluate new products?
  4. What are typical assumptions for viable profits on a new product?
  5. How are general and administrative (G&A) or other overhead costs allocated among new product development projects?
  6. What's the accepted level of uncertainty for financial forecasts?

This Project

  1. What is your vision of the project?
  2. Draw me the product (if you can)?
  3. Guess a range for the price of this product?
  4. Why this project?
  5. How important is this project to BU strategic goals?
  6. Why is your company doing this project with the university?
  7. What advantages are there of having students and faculty involved?
  8. What are management's objectives for this project?
  9. What skills do you expect student team members to have?
  10. What budget and resources are available for the project beyond the fee paid to the university?
  11. What's the procedure for handling small project costs?
  12. Who from the company will attend weekly team meetings?
  13. Who will attend the two design reviews?
  14. Who else in the company needs to be informed about the project on a periodic basis?
  15. What are company's primary patents in project area? (Read them.)
  16. What are company core technologies in the project area?
  17. What are major risk areas for project?
  18. What should the end-of-project prototype(s) and business plan look like?
  19. What other deliverables are there?
  20. What are the relevant trade publications which you read to understand the market and competitors? (Flip through past 10 issues.)
  21. Which trade shows do you go to?
  22. Are there any up-coming trade shows that one or two students can be sent to?

Resources for Project Assessment

Also see the "Note on doing company background research".

People to Interview at Company

  • Project primary marketing contact
  • Project primary engineering design contact
  • Manufacturing contact
  • Financial contact
  • BU (Business Unit) chief (director/VP, or company CEO)
  • Patent attorney or patent administrator
  • Local sales representative or sales person

Internal Company Materials to Examine

  • Annual reports (past 5 years)
  • Employee handbooks, divisional brochures, benefits booklets
  • Org chart
  • Profiles of senior managers
  • Recruiting packages
  • Corporate histories
  • Company and BU newsletters
  • Company and BU organization charts
  • BU press releases (past 3 years)
  • Recent trade/media articles about BU
  • Videos: products, marketing messages, ads, training tapes, convention tapes
  • Product catalogs, product brochures, product data sheets
  • New product development process document
  • Memos and notes related to current project
  • Web site

External Sources

  • Star Tribune (5 year search on company)
  • SEC Edgar (for 10-K annual reports)
  • FDA (for company 510K, PMA and warning letters)
  • USPTO (for patents)
  • Catalogs and web sites of competitors