EPC 2011 REGIONAL ENGINEERING POSTGRADUATE CONFERENCE

A STUDY OF PRE-DEVELOPMENT IMPLEMENTATION IN MALAYSIAN MANUFACTURING SMEs 

N.H.Abu, B.Md.Deros, D.Abd.Wahab, M.N.Ab.Rahman and N.Nordin  

Abstract: Pre-development is an important driver for a successful implementation of a new product development (NPD) project. While large-scale organizations have adopted an efficient pre-development implementation, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have not received adequate attention from the research community for their pre-development implementation. Therefore, this paper identifies the practice of pre-development implementation among Malaysian food and beverages manufacturing SMEs. It was based on the results of a survey of 156 SMEs in the food and beverage industry. Quantitative data analysis was conducted using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version. Descriptive analysis was carried out for this study in order to: explore the goals SMEs have set for their pre-development implementation; identify main sources of the idea generation; explore useful assessment tools and techniques to support pre-development activities; and project evaluations which are analysis used by SMEs to terminate or select the most potential proposed projects. The results of the study are in-line with earlier findings that the implementation of a pre-development is important for the development of quality products; listening to the customer becomes an important source for SMEs to generate new ideas; creative technique is frequently used as a formal assessment technique during idea assessment; and SMEs are intensively involved in business analysis on the project evaluation process. The results presented a clarified view of pre-development implementation that may serve as a guide for the successful development and market launch of new products among food and beverages manufacturing SMEs.

Keywords: Pre-development process, Malaysian food and beverages manufacturing SMEs, product innovation

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