Contribuição para a gestão da integração no processo de desenvolvimento de produto.
Abstract
Continuous development of new and improved products is seen as a key factor for business
survival and growth. A new product that satisfies consumer s needs in an efficient and
opportune manner increases competitive advantage. New product development (NPD) process
has a multidisciplinary and multifunctional character, demanding specialized kinds of
technical knowledge, peculiar of different disciplines or functions. A successful NPD requests
a good integration among these functions, so that an auxiliary tool that helps this integration
can increase project s performance and, consequently, competitive performance. In this thesis
an auxiliary tool for managing functional integration in new product development processes is
proposed, based in three conditional factors (Context, Technological Positioning,
Competences) and three dimensions (Communication, Coordination and Collaboration). The
tool s proposal includes a discussion about these conditional factors and dimensions,
describing how they can be used to acquire an adequate functional integration in new product
development process. As a secondary contribution of the thesis, a discussion about a
particular case of integration, the one between applied research and NPD project, is made,
including a theoretical discussion and case studies.