Course content

Product development in a strategic and operational business perspective, The different schools of product development. Managing innovation and new product development. Product portfolio management. Ideation and concept generation in early phases. Lean product development. Prototyping in new product development. Innovation and new product development best-practices. Case examples. The course is module-based and typically consists of 3 modules.

Learning outcome

Knowledge: The student has a solid foundation and understanding of new product development (NPD) theory. This includes the understanding of the role of NPD as a system of processes as well as methodologies and frameworks such as Lean product development, set-based design, prototyping and topology optimization.

Skills: The student has an overview of the different methodologies and frameworks and shows the ability to scientifically and systematically deal with challenges related to NPD to succeed with the MSc project. The candidate knows the state of the art and is able to select and adapt methodologies to solve challenges faced in NPD.

General competence: The student understands the basics of NPD and its relationships and interfaces with other parts of the business system. Based on this competence s/he shall be able to deal with and participate in systematic NPD improvement initiatives at company, team and individual levels. In summary, the primary goal is to develop a basis for managing and executing NPD tasks in general.

Learning methods and activities

Lectures, assignments and self-study. The lectures and assignments may be given in English.

The course is mainly self-study, but supporting lectures are given thorought the semester in each of the modules.

Compulsory assignments

• Assignments

Further on evaluation

Written exam (100%) is the basis for evaluation in the course. Compulsory exercises have to be approved in order to take the exam. Both the solution and the way to arrive at the solution will count for the evaluation. For a re-take of an examination, all assessments during the course must be re-taken.If there is a re-sit examination, the examination form may be changed from written to oral.

Recommended previous knowledge

The fundamental topics of mechanical engineering including TMM4115 Engineering modeling, TMM4121 Engineering design and TMM4245 Fuzzy Front End. The course is open only for students currently taking their specialization project (9. semester).

Course materials

Information is given at the start of the semester. Each module uses a collection of research papers and compendiums.