CORE: Connecting Repositories - Modified Stage-Gate: A Conceptual Model of Virtual Product Development Process

In today’s dynamic marketplace,
manufacturing companies are under strong pressure to introduce new
products for long-term survival with their competitors. Nevertheless,
every company cannot cope up progressively or immediately with the
market requirements due to knowledge dynamics being experienced in the
competitive milieu. Increased competition and reduced product life
cycles put force upon companies to develop new products faster. In
response to these pressing needs, there should be some new approach
compatible in flexible circumstances. This paper presents a solution
based on the popular Stage-Gate system, which is closely linked with
virtual team approach. Virtual teams can provide a platform to advance
the knowledge-base in a company and thus to reduce time-to-market. This
article introduces conceptual product development architecture under a
virtual team umbrella. The paper describes all the major aspects of new
product development (NPD), NPD process and its relationship with virtual
teams, Stage-Gate system finally presents a modified Stage-Gate system
to cope up with the changing needs. It also provides the guidelines for
the successful implementation of virtual teams in new product
development.