Mapping product innovation profile to product development activities - the I-DSM tool

The quality of the decisions during the design phase of a product development process is strongly connected with the assessment of the product, process and organizational innovation dimensions. The developed methodology addresses the three dimensions, using 3D innovation attributes, in order to obtain a product innovation profile through an innovation survey. An innovation design structure matrix tool (I-DSM tool) is used for mapping and analyzing the dependencies between the innovation attributes. Furthermore an innovation improvement impact value for each attribute is introduced and an optimal improvement strategy is defined. Next the product innovation profile is mapped with the product development activities, in order to evaluate the effect of the proposed strategy to the activities cost and durations.