CPD describes a combination of processes, organizations and technologies that allow engineers and designers to work together to communicate and share information, regardless of location, to create products and achieve aggressive business goals. Our methodology focuses on the analysis, design, and implementation of these processes around the product development process in a company, across multiple design teams (some being geographically dispersed), and over the entire product lifetime. A lot of this is information technology focused, and the majority is about the organization structure and the development of the governance of the innovation process across multiple enterprises. Some of the tools we use as part of the Collaborative Product Design methodology include:

 

Stage-Gate is the creation and management of the innovation process from the voice of the customer to the end of life of a product.  Stage-Gate implements a standard decision making and approval process across the enterprise and multiple design entities.  To successfully take a new product from concept to market, Stage-Gate® divides this end-to-end process into a series of activities (stages) and decision points (gates).  Stages are where all project activities occur up to a pre-defined milestone, including the management of associated risks.  Stage activities are run in parallel, where possible, to minimize the time to the next gate. Gates are decision points where management will either approve the next stage or cancel the project based on pre-defined performance evaluation criteria.  Projects that employ Stage-Gate typically achieve an accelerated time-to-market, utilize resources efficiently, make key decisions in a timely manner, and significantly increase the likelihood of success.