Abstract
With the increasing global market competition and demand for a high innovation dynamic of new products entering the market, industries need to accelerate time to market to sustain profitability and keep a competitive advantage. Various product niches exist, and multiple products are constantly being developed and released to the market; however, a knowledge gap was identified in the development of highly regulated chemicals. New regulatory products are typically introduced through a prolonged and expensive development process, often including several redevelopment iterations until the product reaches the market; this negatively impacts the industry.
This research ascertained whether, in the case where a well-defined product concept evaluation of highly regulated chemicals is conducted at the conceptualisation stage of the product development cycle, it can reduce redevelopment and costs, thus reducing time to market. The aim was to develop a product development conceptualisation process for the development of highly regulated chemicals with the aim of fast-tracking time to market through applied research.
A pragmatic design approach was taken for this research. An in-depth understanding of the product development conceptualisation process for the development of highly regulated chemicals was initiated with a literature review. The literature-derived models were validated with empirical data. A case study based on a case organisation specialising in the development and market of highly regulated chemicals was employed for the empirical data collection. The empirical data consisted of primary data, i.e. interviews with the practitioners, and secondary data, i.e. case project reports from the case organisation. This data was analysed and compared to literature using data triangulation to obtain significant and validated findings relating to the research questions, aim and proposition.
The research findings confirm that a conceptualisation process conducted at the beginning of the product development cycle reduces redevelopment. The product development conceptualisation process developed through this research can be implemented at the case organisation to minimise redevelopment and costs and fast-track time to market. This work may be beneficial to other practitioners and researchers seeking guidance or literature on the causes of redevelopment in the product development cycle, the activities that can reduce redevelopment in later stages and a product development conceptualisation model that can be applied practically in the chemical industry or used as literature for future studies.