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NPD Coach Greetings!
Do you feel overwhelmed or are you struggling to find your  groove? New Product Development (NPD) projects are sometimes hectic with parallel tasks ongoing.
To help you better manage the chaos of NPD, Global NP Solutions has prepared another dynamic thought leadership paper for you, offering 3 Tips to Manage Projects. Check out the featured article below.
We're continuing our popular new column, Ask the NPD Coach with Q&A from the NPDP Discussion Forum. Let us know what you think of this new feature or if you have any questions for us! Send questions to info@globalnpsolutions.com to be featured here.
This month's recommended reading reviews a classic Project Management text, The Goal by Eli Goldratt. You'll definitely want to check it out!
Finally, May's Innovation Fun Fact offers a short video demonstration of the Theory of Constraints. As you view this video and read the thought leadership paper, how will you apply the 3 Tips to Manage Projects in NPD?
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Meeting Critical Project Deadlines
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Three Tips to Manage Projects
Accurately determining project schedules is one of the biggest failures in New Product Development (NPD). Missed product launches lead to lower profits and reduced market  share. Overstressed team members cannot execute on assigned projects and multitasking is destroying worker productivity.
Follow the story of Jim, a project manager, who learns three tips to manage NPD projects, meet critical schedule deadlines and improve his team's morale.
You can learn tips about assigning project resources, critical chain management, and the myth of multitasking in "Three Tips for Managing Projects:Â How to Meet Critical Deadlines." GNPS Premier members can log-on and download for FREE (first year membership is only $60 so you save $47 on an annual subscription!). Non-members can Download Now (in pdf) and learn the four tips to manage projects for critical deadlines at the low price of only $8.95, including sales tax.
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Recommended Reading
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The Goal
by Eli Goldratt and Jeff Cox
The Goal is a classic text in project management circles. Written in an easy-to-digest novel format, Eli Goldratt helps the reader to lea  rn basic financial concepts. He then encourages us to apply these ideas to continuous improvement.
While some have criticized The Goal as applying only to a manufacturing environment, I would disagree. One of the key themes throughout the book is to ask questions and drill down to the core issue. And that's exactly what we do in New Product Development! We ask our customers questions to understand their needs. We ask cross-functional team members questions to understand the scope and schedule for the project. We ask senior executives questions to understand the strategic objectives for our innovation efforts.
If you haven't read The Goal, you should do so. If you've already learned from this book, take a second look and see if you improve some more!
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Innovation Fun Fact
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Theory of Constraints
Project Management theories can help New Product Development (NPD) teams improve cycle times by assigning adequate resources and eliminating  multitasking.
The Theory of Constraints (TOC) aids scheduling of tasks in NPD by identifying critical tasks and resources. TOC offers continuous improvement in the process, not be removing bottlenecks, but by taking advantage of them.
Click on the bottle at the left to watch a short video (less than 7 minutes) to learn more in a fun demonstration of the Theory of Constraints.
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