Development of a structured approach to assessing practice in product development collaborations

Collaborative new product development is recognized as an increasingly important industrial activity. This paper reviews the development of practical techniques for the assessment of product development collaboration practices. The paper then describes their application within four companies currently involved in product development company collaborations. The techniques are a collaboration maturity grid to assess overall collaborative competence and a life cycle scenario tool for the examination of a specific collaborative project. It is proposed that these tools, embodied in a workbook, provide a means whereby manufacturing companies can assess and improve the effectiveness of the collaborative activities critical to their business. The tools assist in identifying risk, required contingency plans and areas for improvement of skills or transfer of good practice.