KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

New Metrics for Productivity and Portfolio Profitability: Why Time and Cost Reduction Don't Work

Recent studies into new product performance contain a number of surprises. Most shocking is that that the impact of NPD on companies’ sales and profits is down! And many companies are struggling to achieve their annual NPD sales and profit goals. How has this happened and why?

In his keynote address, Dr. Robert Cooper looks at the hard facts revealing why NPD performance is off. While companies have successfully reduced time-to-market and gained short-term profitability, they have also done severe damage to their development portfolios and portfolio profitability. Cooper will outline several solutions to remedy underperforming NPD efforts, solutions that are right for many companies.

The key is to focus on productivity in NPD, not simply on cutting time and costs. These recommendations include:

• Develop a product innovation strategy for your business and let that strategy guide resource allocation decisions

• Change performance metrics – focus less on short-term financial metrics and more on metrics that capture the long-term potential for growth of the business

• Implement a portfolio management system – and incorporate the use of strategic buckets to rebalance your development portfolio

• Emphasize speed less and profitability more

• Feed the pipeline with more game-changer ideas

Dr. Robert G. Cooper, author of best-selling books “Winning at New Products” and “Portfolio Management for New Products”, has published more than 95 articles on new products, R&D and innovation management. Cooper is Professor of Industrial Marketing and Technology Management at McMaster University (Ontario, Canada) as well as founder and president of the Product Development Institute. Recognized as a world expert in the field of new product development, and founder of the Stage-Gate® process, Cooper’s methods have been introduced globally by many companies including P&G, 3M, ABB, AT&T, Carlsberg, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical, Dupont, Exxon Chemicals, HP, ITT, Kraft Foods, Kennametall, Lego, Pfizer, VISA and many others.

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

The Future of
Product Development Metrics: Corporations, Projects & Functions

Brad will also be providing a pre-conference workshop: Product Development Metrics Portfolios

There are some clear trends emerging in the evolution of metrics for Product Development. Project metrics lead the maturity curve. There are evidences of common standardized sets of metrics. Corporation metrics and functional metrics are lagging in maturity, but will start to catch up in the next few years. Metrics experimentation is increasing. The search is on for the few metrics with the highest correlation to successful outcomes, and for those that may create competitive advantage. Metrics expansion is starting. The range of metrics companies are attempting to master now clearly includes advanced development, research, and important supporting processes such as product portfolio, project portfolio, technology portfolio and risk assessment. Over the last ten years, the evolution of this body of knowledge appears to be tracking closely to the way industry metrics for logistics and operations evolved.

Mr. Goldense will share his insights and projections on expected industry activities in these areas for the next five years, and for long term maturity.

Bradford L. Goldense, Founder & CEO, Goldense Group, Inc. has been assisting engineering and manufacturing companies for the past twenty years in assessing, developing, and implementing competitive business changes. Mr. Goldense has consulted to over 75 Fortune 1000 companies and has done work in well over 250 manufacturing plants. He specializes in several areas including: strategic planning, reengineering, product development, manufacturing management, and engineering/manufacturing design/information systems. For the past five years, Mr. Goldense has concentrated his efforts in the concurrent engineering and engineering automation areas to reduce cycle times product development and manufacturing functions.

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Team Software Process (TSP):
Successful Strategies and Metrics for Distributed Software Development

This talk addresses an increasingly common problem for U.S. industry: managing off-shore software development. Since the requirements, design, and final testing work for these projects must often be done in the U.S., these projects often cross multiple time zones and involve widely distributed development groups. Successful strategies for managing these challenges must address distributed team communication, project coordination, project control, and multi-cultural team-working.

Since off-shore development groups have many of the same software management problems that are common to U.S. software and hardware groups, subcontracting entire projects is rarely successful. A newer and more promising approach uses the Team Software Process (TSP) method developed by the Software Engineering Institute.

Key Take-aways:

• Key strategies and metrics to effectively manage distributed development efforts

• Methods for applying the Team Software Process – how to get started, what to watch out for and practical tips for successful implementation and execution

• An overview of the typical results being achieved by U.S. and Indian software groups

Watts S. Humphrey founded the Software Process Program of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University. He is a Fellow of the Institute and is a research scientist on its staff. From 1959 to 1986 he was associated with IBM Corporation where he was director of programming.

His publications include numerous technical papers and nine books. His two most recent books are PSP: A Self-Improvement Process for Software Engineers (2005) and Winning with Software: An Executive Strategy (2001). Mr. Humphrey holds five U.S. Patents. He received a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Chicago, a master's degree in physics from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

The Explosion of Metrics and Quantitative Analysis in Professional Sports

The innovative use of statistics and data analysis is rapidly becoming standard operating procedure within the strategic arsenal of professional sports teams. In the face of million dollar salaries, long-term contracts, salary caps and a “win now” appetite from fans and ownership – it is more important than ever for professional sports executives to be on target in their decision making. STATS, Inc. provides teams with the information needed to quick, accurate evaluations about both their own players and opponents alike.

While statistical analysis dates back many decades in the pro ranks, the trend is rapidly advancing in Major League Baseball - with National Football League and National Basketball Association franchises not far behind. More and more, objective information is used by general managers, scouts, coaches and players to determine the most direct path to victory. Player and team trends, tendencies and match ups as well game plans and in-game decisions are all rooted in the thorough dissection of data and statistics.

Mr. Schur will discuss the unique, esoteric data collected and disseminated by STATS, Inc. and the various ways this in-depth information is used in professional sports today.

Robert Schur has been with STATS, Inc. since 2000 and currently serves as executive vice president of the company, in charge of STATS’ Commercial Unit and the Data Collection Business Unit as well as legal oversight for the company. Under Mr. Schur’s direction, STATS has consistently increased profitability and efficiency throughout the company, and he has helped build and maximize the equity value of the organization. Instrumental in the launch of the STATS PASS™ research tool and the expansion of STATS X-INFO™, Mr. Schur has guided his teams to maximize technology in serving and providing cutting edge products to the STATS customer base. Schur’s focus on expanding customer relationships has rounded out his successful tenure at STATS.

KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Applying Lean Logic to Product Development Metrics

When manufacturing shifted to lean methods its metrics underwent a striking transformation. It discovered the danger of high capacity utilization, the true cost of queues, and the damage caused by large batch sizes. It substituted the agility of "pull" for the minutely detailed schedules of MRP systems. Product development has yet to make this transition.

This presentation will explain:

• Why queue size is a more effective metric than cycle time

• How focusing on conformance to plan undermines economic performance

• How to measure capacity utilization when neither capacity nor demand can be estimated accurately

• Why simple decentralized controls outperform centralized metrics

• Why eliminating all variability eliminates value-added

Don Reinertsen is President of Reinertsen & Associates, specializing in the management of the product development process. Before forming his own firm, he consulted at McKinsey & Co., an international management consulting firm, and was Senior Vice President of operations at Zimmerman Holdings, a private diversified manufacturing company. His contributions in the field of product development have been recognized internationally. He is particularly noted for bringing fresh perspectives and quantitative rigor to development process management. In 1983, while a consultant at McKinsey & Co., he wrote a landmark article in Electronic Business magazine that first quantified the value of development speed. This article has been cited in the frequently quoted McKinsey study that indicated “6 months delay can be worth 33 percent of lifecycle profits.” He coined the term “Fuzzy Front End” in 1983 and began applying world class manufacturing techniques in product development in 1985. His latest book, Managing the Design Factory, is recognized as a powerful and thoughtful application of manufacturing thinking to product development. Don is also co-author of, Developing Products in Half the Time. Mr. Reinertsen holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School.