Structured Method for Identifying Success Factors in New Product Development of Machine Tools

New product development of machine tools is always costly and risky for machine tools manufacturers; nevertheless, there have been few academic studies on the product development process of machine tools. Successful product developments were found to be related to perceived superior skills and resources within the objective of machine tools manufacturers. In this study, in order to establish the product development methodology for machine tools, the success factors in new product development have been identified based on the results of the interview and questionnaire investigations with experienced engineers in Japanese machine tools manufacturers. Based on the findings of this study, a structured method for identifying the success factors in new product development has been proposed.