Keywords: new product development, industrial engineering students, creativity development
Training of new product development for industrial engineering students: a case from the Kanazawa Institute of Technology
There are two types of new product development, i.e. technological seed oriented and market need oriented. The former is difficult to instil in a limited time scale of several weeks; therefore, we tried the latter one. A class of 60 senior students are divided into ten groups with six students each. First step: each group must find 100 problems to be solved by a new product, and choose the most appropriate. Second step: each group must generate 100 ideas to solve the most appropriate, and choose the best idea. Third step: each group must study technological feasibility. Fourth step: each group must study market feasibility. Fifth step: each group must complete a new product planning format and make a mock-up using paper, boxes, cans and bottles. Sixth step: presentation by each group where the other nine groups ask questions and the group responds and finally each student votes on a 5 point scale for each new product and selects the best new product out of ten. Each step is 90 minutes x 3 classes a day for six weeks. One example of the output and the students' impressions in the class are shown.