—
Special Web Review Edition —
article-one:
Web Review Roundup - Part I
To date, this newsletter has reviewed 32 different
websites related to various pieces of product development. We thought it would be a good
idea to revisit these sites, first to find out how many still existed (surprisingly,
almost all of them), and second, to compile them together in one place with updated
information. We'll be continuing this compilation in future issues, but to start, here are
the first 13 sites we've featured:
* Indicates updated link
11/10/98 - HINETBC
* Link: http://www.hinetbc.org/
From Hinet, British Columbia's Health Industry Network, we
originally posted their development template instructing entrepreneurs on how to develop a
new medical device product, but the site has since been reorganized. The same information
is still available, but can now be found by clicking "resources" in the menu at
the top of their homepage. [ Read original review]
12/15/98 - Developages /
Supplybase
* Link: http://www.tradematrix.net
Developages was a neat, free online space for finding contract
manufacturers, development partners and outsourcing firms. Since we first saw them they
became supplybase.inc, which was then purchased by i2 in the last era of M&A
craziness. Poking around at i2, I found what they did with supplybase - it's now called
the "TradeMatrix Open Commerce Network" (see new url above). Too bad,
"supplybase" was easier to remember, but maybe not as "fundable".
[ Read original review]
1/12/99 - PDM Information Center
Link: http://www.pdmic.com
While the acronyms that surround product development information
technology continue to compile into new and more creative incarnations, PDM is one that
continues to remain as the de facto standard for product data management tools, just as
this site remains one of the best for serving the information needs of this industry and
its customers. And, thankfully, they're one of the few still calling it PDM. [Read original review]
2/12/99 - NSF Research on NPD and
Innovation
Link #1: http://www.eas.asu.edu/~kdooley/innovation.html
Link #2: http://www.eas.asu.edu/~kdooley/nsfnpd
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, 3M,
and Honeywell, Arizona State's Kevin Dooley has made available several research papers on
the subject of NPD and innovation. The list of downloadable papers, however, has moved here. [Read original review]
3/22/99 - Product Development
Network
Link: http://www.pdn.com
Similar to "developages", but not congruent, PDN's simple
mission is to help world-class companies find business partners and facilitate their
communication. The twist? It's very international, or at least European (which in
America means "International" - I agree, that's weak). The services that
they offer don't look like they've changed very much in two years, which is probably a
good thing. [Read original review]
4/19/99 - Lean Enterprise Institute
Link: http://www.lean.org
This is the official website for Jim Womack, co-author of the
acclaimed books on the Toyota Production System (TPS), Lean Thinking and The Machine That
Changed the World. The website is a good resource for those interested in the lean path,
and has also changed very little since its inception. Whenever I visit this site, I wonder
how the webmaster has considered such things as value, pull, flow and perfection when
presenting lean information. Yeah, I know I'm a geek. [Read original review]
5/20/99 - Australian Design Awards
* Link: http://www.designawards.com.au
Awards are fun, especially design awards, but BusinessWeek's has
lost its luster for me, so I was pleased to show this one as a down under alternative. The
URL has changed slightly, but the awards are as alive as ever. Don't forget to check out
the 2000 winners. "A Dingo ate my palm pilot!" [Read original review]
7/22/99 - Configuration Management
Information Center
Link: http://www.pdmic.com/cmic
Configuration management is one of those mission critical practices
that very few people understand as important, a kind of necessary but invisible thing. An
offspring of the PDM Information Center, the CMIC hopes to replicate the PDMIC's services,
but focused on configuration management instead. [Read original review]
8/26/99 - Online IPD Tutorial
Link: http://daniel.aero.calpoly.edu/~amdaf/nasa/nasaol.html
From California Polytechnic Institute, this page provides a solid,
basic overview of IPD - Integrated Product Development, aka concurrent engineering and
other names. An excellent introduction to the subject, nothing fancy, just a powerpoint
presentation converted to web format. I wonder if the webmaster even knows it's there.
[Read original review]
9/27/99 - MIT Metrics Research
* Link: http://web.mit.edu/cipd/index.htm
We originally reviewed research by MIT's John Hauser on product
development metrics, but the original pages seem gone forever. You may wish to visit the
link we've posted instead, which can lead you to information on the many research
initiatives underway at MIT's Center for Innovation in Product Development (CIPD). [Read original review]
10/29/99 - Glossary of Project
Management Terms
Link: http://www.pmforum.org/library/glossary/index.htm
A very nice glossary of common terms associated with
project management, from consultant R. Max Wideman. If you find the glossary is missing a
term, send an email to Max. [Read original review]
11/26/99 - pdLAB
Link: http://www.pdlab.com
A general information resource for product developers in the food,
beverage and pharmaceutical industries (those three go together, right?). Any
other "process manufacturing" oriented industries may also benefit. There are
many helpful tools and resources on this site, but nothing on how to decide if you should
make green ketchup. [Read original review]
12/29/99 - eBusiness Research
Center
Link: http://www.ebrc.psu.edu/main.html
Penn State's eBRC was established to study the impact of the digital
economy on business practices. I don't think massive layoffs was something they predicted,
but they do write papers like "The Real Power of
Artificial Markets." I've been out of college a loooong time. [Read original review]
Know
a website we should review? Send the url to gregg@roundtable.com
We
share reader reactions to TCP articles on our website.
Please send any feedback to gregg@roundtable.com
article-two:
And Now a Word From Our Sponsor
If you’ve never had the benefit of hearing Sandy
Munro, president of Munro & Associates, speak about concurrent engineering and product
design, you can consider your product development education woefully incomplete. While
it’s a little outside our editorial practice to publish our own marketing copy as an
article, Sandy submitted the following abstract to us for a workshop he is presenting at
an upcoming conference…and…well…it just had to be shared. Please forgive
this obviously shameless plug.
Product Lifecycle Economics
Half-Day Workshop
Instructor: Sandy Munro, Munro & Associates
In the "good old days" you
simply had an idea, got a prototype to work and started to ship your "stuff"!
Life was simple, but products were atrocious! Customer satisfaction? reliability? service?
recycle issues? "You drove it off the lot, it’s yours now buddy… Good
Luck!"
"Buyer Beware!" Those were words to live by if you were a consumer
and "it’s all the Unions fault" was the mantra of those companies who
didn’t make profit. Things have certainly changed. Now there’s an alphabet soup
of acronyms around and if you look closely you will see they spell trouble for those who
choose to ignore them.
The concept of Product Life Cycle Costs has been around for quite a while
but who’s really doing it and how far are they taking the process? If you make a
product today what’s’ your liability tomorrow? How much Quality is
enough and when is it time to shoot the Engineer and move to production? What’s a
real value chain and what’s the difference between a Partner, Supplier
and a Vendor? What tools are proven and worth while and which just spin your
wheels? How far up-front is enough and when does Lean and Mean turn into Emaciated
and Disheartened?
Sandy Munro will address these issues and much more in a fast paced, interactive
presentation that gets the audience involved whether they are ready or not. Sandy’s
many project experiences in Aerospace, Defense, Medical, and of course Automotive
allows him the unique ability to talk, not only in theory about the problems, but also
from a down in the trenches perspective. You will come away from this workshop with usable
information and an understanding of several tools. In other words Dangerous!
Workshop Details
Interested in sponsoring this newsletter?
For a list of terms and rates, send an e-mail to gregg@roundtable.com or
click here.
article-three:
Top Ten Breakfast Cereals for
Product Developers
...from the MRT satellite office in
Battle Creek, MI
| 10. |
Asynchronous
Fruit Loops - Fortified with Data |
9. |
Toyota
Production Pops - 100% Fat Free |
8. |
Cracklin’
Marketing-O’s – not as sweet as it looks on the box |
| 7. |
Honey
Bunches of Throughput - aids regularity |
| 6. |
Poka
Yoke Puffs - only one right way to eat them |
| 5. |
Six
Sugar Sigma Smacks – 3.4 sour smacks per million |
| 4. |
Frosted
Mini-Dells - every new box built to order |
| 3. |
Cinnamon
Test Crunch - rated "least defective breakfast" by Shin Taguchi |
| 2. |
Toasted
Metrics Raisin Bran - highest raisin : bran ratio on the market |
...and the No. 1
breakfast cereal for product developers: |
| 1. |
Wheaties
- limited edition Eli Goldratt box |
Send
me your Top Ten List suggestions - gregg@roundtable.com
TCP
Top Ten List Archive
article-four:
MRT News - Exec Series, Co-Dev 2002
NPD Executive Roadmap Series
We've gotten tremendous response to our new executive
series, which packages our 3 fall conferences together with facilitated guidance and
private sessions with renowned NPD experts Robert Cooper and Scott Edgett.
Many people have asked if they can sign up for just 2
conferences of the series, or remove the add-on workshops. The answer is yes. If you'd
like to discuss how we can customize this program to suit your needs, please contact
Jackie Cooper at jackie@roundtable.com or 781-891-8080 x211.
The series can also be shared with others in your company,
so you can split up the attendance and get the same cost savings and special benefits. For
complete details on the series: http://www.roundtable.com/Event_Center/execseries.html
The first conference in the series is in September, very
soon, so act now.
MRT and PDMA present Co-Dev 2002
As we mentioned last month, Management Roundtable
has partnered with the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA)
to produce the first international congress on "Co-Developing Products with
Suppliers, Partners and Customers: Making it Work" to be held January 28-30,
2001 at the Phoenix Hyatt.
The conference "Call for Papers" is still active until Monday, August 20th, so please hurry if
you'd like to propose a presentation. Information on the program is available, including a
downloadable copy of the event brochure, at the official conference website: http://www.codevpd.org
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