GGI RapidNews R&D Product Development eZine: Volume 2, Issue 3 - April 4, 2001
GGI RapidNews is published monthly

R&D SURVEY RESULTS
Metrics Survey: The 2000 GGI Survey focused on 5 topics related to Product Portfolio Management: R&D Linkages To Corporate Strategy, Portfolio Management Metrics, Product Selection Metrics, Product Success Metrics, and R&D Metrics Used In Industry.

Free downloadable copies of the 2000 R&D Metrics Survey Description and/or Survey Questionnaire are available at our Market Research Reading Room http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/readmarket.shtml. You will also find the same two free downloadable files for GGI's 1998 Product Development Metrics Survey. The 1998 and some 2000 Metrics Survey results are now available for purchase at http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/cgi/catalog.cgi?display_p355.

Each month GGI shares selected R&D survey results with RapidNews readers. This month's results are listed below for your review and consideration:

• There has been more than a 50% increase in the past 5 years in the percentage of company sales due to new products, as measured by 3M's innovative 1988 product development metric! In 1995, 20% of revenues came from new products, whereas in 1999, 32% of revenues came from new products (where new products are defined as being less than 3-4 years old).
  
  
• Companies report that - on average - their released products are 68% successful and 32% unsuccessful!
  
  
• The industry-wide rate at which R&D projects are approved is 59%. 41% are rejected!
  
  
• Only 3 R&D metrics are used by more than 50% of companies!

Our next R&D Metrics Survey will be conducted early in 2002. If you would like to participate at that time, please send me an e-mail to get on our mailing list.

TECHNOLOGY & SOFTWARE REVIEWS
Boothroyd & Dewhurst, Inc. Announces Release of New Design for Assembly Software Version 9.0: The long-awaited Design For Assembly (DFA) version 9.0 software is now being released. Version 9.0 has many new features and capabilities to aid engineers estimating product assembly times and costs. The software operates on Windows 95, 98, NT, and 2000.

The major differences between versions 9.0 and 8.2 include a new layout, a main window that displays the Product Structure Chart, DFA Questions, and Analysis Results. This main window is user customizable. Now that everything is in one window, opening and closing different windows to complete an analysis, a characteristic of DFA version 8.2., has been eliminated. Design for Manufacturing (DFM ) files from Concurrent Costing 1.1 can also be imported directly into a DFA analysis. DFA 9.0 also allows 3D part geometry importation from any major CAD/CAM software package by using SolidView from Solid Concepts (Valencia CA.). See, for example, the screen shot at http://www.dfma.com/editors.

Operations Libraries capabilities have been greatly expanded. Operations are selected from a pull down menu with cascading trees. Operations have all the mathematical capabilities of old DFA version 7.1, plus additional capabilities to program macros with logic statements. Not being able to edit macros directly from the structure chart is, in this author's opinion, a draw back.

Mr. Nick Dewhurst, Manager of Implementation and Consulting Services at Boothroyd & Dewhurst Inc. stated that he expected the "new version of DFA, with all its enhancements, to provide users with new insights into product development, which will lead to more robust cost avoidance."

As the developer of DFMA, Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc. is the world leader in software tools that provide manufacturing assembly knowledge to the product design process. In 1991, Drs. Geoffrey Boothroyd and Peter Dewhurst were awarded the National Medal of Technology by President George Bush for their work in DFMA. Other recipients of the National Medal of Technology have included William Gates of Microsoft Corp. and Ray Dolby of Dolby Laboratories Inc. For more information, contact Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc., 138 Main Street, Wakefield, RI 02879, USA. Tel. 800-424-DFMA. Fax 401-783-6872; Web site: http://www.dfma.com; E-mail: info@dfma.com.

[The above observations were prepared by GGI Affiliate David G. Meeker. David is a twenty-year DFM/A expert who participated in one of the original DFM's in industry, simplification of the Mouse. David was Digital's senior DFM/A official and continued in that role when Compaq absorbed Digital. David has an MS in Engineering & Public Policy, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University. He also teaches Product Development at MIT.]

NEW WEB CONTENT
Calendar: The brochures for most of the Conferences that will take place before June 2001 are now published. GGI's listing of Product Development Conferences is exceptional. See the following URL: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/gateway/proddevconf.shtml.

Gateways To Knowledge: There is new web content this month for your professional use. A total of 14 new Gateways have been added to GGI's MEGA Technology Suppliers Gateway to connect you with several hundred additional companies. The new Gateways are as follows:

• Abrasives/Grinding
• Automated Handling/Robotics
• CNC/DRO/Controls
• Coatings/Finishing
• Coolants/Lubricants/Filters
• Cutting Tools
• Drilling/Boring/Tapping
• EDM/Plasma/Waterjet
• Forming/Fabricating
• Heat Treating
• ID Marking
• Machining Centers
• Measurement/Inspection
• Turning Centers

For further information see: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/gateway/techproviders.shtml.

CONFERENCES OF INTEREST
6th Annual SOCE Conference: The Society of Concurrent Product Development (SCPD '01), formerly the Society of Concurrent Engineering (SOCE), will hold its 6th Annual Conference entitled Concurrent Product Development Excellence on Wednesday and Thursday, June 6 and 7, at the BU Corporate Education Center in Tyngsboro, Mass. The conference features keynote addresses by EMC and Sun Microsystems; three concurrent seminars on CPD methods; and three tracks on Managing the CPD Process, Emerging Capabilities, and CPD for Drug Discovery. SCPD '01 includes Engineering from the Right Side of the Brain, a presentation by Doug Field, VP of Product Development for a DEKA Research and Development company (affiliated with Dean Kamen, developer of IBOT and Ginger/It). The conference is sponsored by the Society of Concurrent Product Development with its partners: the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, the IEEE Engineering Management Society and the Boston Area Semiconductor Council (BASE). More information can be found at http://www.soce.org/SOCE01.pdf.

The 2001 International Forum on DFMA: Boothroyd-Dewhurst's annual conference will be held this June 4-5 in Newport, RI. This would be a great opportunity to experience the newly-released version 9.0 (see above) and to talk with its architects and designers. For more information on the conference, please see http://www.dfma.com/forum/index.html.

FEATURED I-STORE PRODUCT
Reward & Recognition: The "Featured Item of the Month" is a technical paper summarizing the research results of the Reward and Recognition section of GGI's 1998 Product Development Metrics Survey. These specific results were published once in June 2000 at Boothroyd-Dewhurst's DFMA Forum, exclusively for conference attendees. URL http://www.goldensegroupinc.com brings you directly to our home page where you can see the "Featured Item" section, and the following URL brings you to the applicable page in GGI's i-store http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/cgi/catalog.cgi.