MIT Master Thesis Abstract Page- Aditya Ranjan

Process Reengineering for New Product Introduction at an Analytical Instrument

Manufacturing Firm

The process of transforming Research and Development knowledge into successful introducing new

products forms a key competency of an innovative company. This new product introduction process was

studied in detail at Waters Corporation.

The process of commercialization spanned a number of departments and lacked functional integration at

departmental interfaces. The current introduction process lacked a number of management processes,

data metrics for evaluation and feedback loops. The product knowledge was lost in the process flow

creating the phenomenon of isolated information compartments in the process and the effect of problem

cascading and amplification was seen downstream. This lead to the phenomenon of firefighting during

the product introduction process. Due to micromanagement of key processes, the Incoming Inspection

department at Waters has been constantly having a backlog of more than 300 lots.

A new process for the creation of a Quality Inspection Plan was proposed. Two important deliverables

detailing critical dimensions and design tolerance was created as per the process. These documents

created as a part of the deliverable during the phase gate review would drive the creation of Quality

Inspection Plan by integrating downstream departments upstream with R&D. Certain sub process within

the commercialization process was selected and the process of standardization was proposed for

feedback- in terms of information and possible data base for metrics creation for continuous

improvement. A set of recommendations was made to strengthen and functionally integrate all the

departments involved in the commercialization process.