Managing Complexities of New Product Development in the Transitioning Space Market

Managing Complexities of New Product Development in the Transitioning Space Market

Grift, Misha (TU Delft Technology, Policy and Management)

Ludema, M.W. (mentor)
Buné, Walter (mentor)
Verburg, R.M. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Management of Technology (MoT)

2019-05-07

The beginning of the millenium has initiated the transformation of the space market to a globally private space industry, distinguished by relatively young and commercially minded aerospace businesses, which is known as NewSpace. Airbus Defence and Space Netherlands B.V. (Airbus DS NL) aspires to anticipate on this transition and has initiated New Product Development (NPD) of optical ground stations. Nonetheless, the existing approach to innovations does not meet the needs of the transitioning market. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to constitute a recommendation for a redesigned NPD process for optical ground stations, which supports the realization of competitive advantage and meets the needs of the transitioning market. A design approach was applied to achieve this objective, first examining the requirements of a redesigned process, second generating a conceptual process design, third empirically testing this design and fourth establishing the implications of the results for a recommended process design. Ultimately, three requirements were derived from examining the existing NPD process of Airbus DS NL, consulting academic literature and performing participatory research. The three requirements are that the redesigned process needs to focus on the make, buy or ally decision, needs to manage complexities of NPD and incorporate the focus on industrialization and definition of the customer needs. These requirements were validated with the client. Based on these requirements a conceptual process design was generated, embodying workshops which run concurrent to the existing NPD process of Airbus DS NL. These workshops enact openness, protection of core-values, progress and substance and focus on five subjects, including the definition of customer needs, risk assessment, product design specifications, competitive analysis and lessons learned. With a case study this conceptual process design was empirically tested. Overall, the workshops have shown to generate many new insights and substantive data for continuation of NPD, especially revealing many more risks need to be assessed than earlier anticipated. Without the workshops these would not have been assessed, majorly affecting NPD outcome. Nonetheless, the empirical research has also established four recommendations for an improved workshop process. The recommended NPD process is the first step for Airbus DS NL to adjust to the changing stability in the market. Subsequent to this study, many adjustments still need to be researched as the continuation of NPD redesign is believed to be vital for ensuring competitiveness of the firm in the years to come.

NPD
new product development
NewSpace
airbus
complexity
Process design
Workshop

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6aad2e2f-a044-42ef-9740-7f9216aeeaed

Student theses

master thesis

© 2019 Misha Grift