New product development resource forecasting

Citation

Hird A, Mendibil K, Duffy A & Whitfield RI (2016) New product development resource forecasting. R&D Management, 46 (5), pp. 857-871. https://doi.org/10.1111/radm.12140

Abstract
Forecasting resource requirements for new product development (NPD) projects is essential for both strategic and tactical planning. Sophisticated, elegant planning tools to present data and inform decision-making do exist. However, in NPD, such tools run on unreliable, estimation-based resource information derived through undefined processes.  This paper establishes that existing methods do not provide transparent, consistent, timely or accurate resource planning information, highlighting the need for a new approach to resource forecasting, specifically in the field of NPD. The gap between the practical issues and available methods highlights the possibility of developing a novel design of experiments approach to create resource forecasting models.

Journal
R&D Management: Volume 46, Issue 5