The Original Stage Gate Process

Stages are groups of activities that can be performed in series or parallel. Stage gates are structured decision points at the end of each state. They are needed between phases in order to make a decision of whether the project should continue with original objectives, should be terminated or should continue with revised objectives. The purpose of stage gates is also to allow sponsors to identify any failures and help in taking decisions for better utilization of resources. Stage gates make way for a standard and structured decision making process. However, good project management also suggests that too many gates can lead to excessive time getting spent on preparing gate reviews as opposed to actually managing the

The second stage is market/commodity this needs to be taken place after the buyer has got the buyer needs to a high specification to ensure that at this stage the right product is chosen. At this stage the procurement department need to research all options available within the market. By getting an estimate of what is on the current market, it enables the buyer to pick out potential suppliers also familiarising the buyer with the competition in the market. This is also the stage where the procurement department would be able to look into conducting an analysis on how they are going to achieve the product i.e. make or purchase it/ utilize the service. By conducting market research it gives stakeholders a clear picture of the market.

Evaluate the importance of understanding the various stages of the project life cycle and its possible contributions to a project.

The significance of these milestones is to enable the team to identify where the key elements of the project are, in terms of risk

The goal of each stage gate review is to achieve consensus among stakeholders at the end of each phase to ensure project requirements, goals, objectives and best practices are being met (G, Perspective: The Stage‐Gate® idea‐to‐launch process—Update, what 's new, and NexGen systems*, 2008). If the consensus is not achieved, it may lead to project lag, project rework, paying for a product that does not meet the desired needs, and decrease the lifespan of the solution. The stage gate review process helps ensure the clients, users, developers, designers, and testers as well as other stakeholders have a unified vision for the solution.

While some of these differences are the result of legitimate differences in their business strategy, business environment, organization, and the nature of their products, a frequent problem is the lack of a common framework of the best practices of product development. With extensive investment of time, an organization could develop the broad, internal expertise necessary to produce an effective improvement plan for product development. During the entire process from conceptualizing to the launch of new product;the activities of the production and marketing functions are as important as those of product development/design function. Many of these activities are interdependent and the new product design must fit in not only with the production and marketing functions of the company but also with a company’s marketing & operations strategies and the existing systems & policies.If a new design warrants change in these strategies or policies or systems , it needs the wholehearted concurrence of production & marketing functions.

All engineering companies are different in the procedure they use when designing a new product. However, some basic steps should always apply to ensure a successful outcome.

Collecting information from R&D, Project Teams, Marketing and Strategic Planning will provide the resources, costs, timing, risks, and opportunities associated with products and the market and will indicate their weight on overall operations. Additional information regarding projects probability of success, their ROI, and market life span will help with prioritizing them, deciding which to undertake, and how to introduce them into the market. Project specific information needed would be the phase, launch year, probability of success, projected sales, and pre-launch costs that include R&D, in order to value each project specifically.

There are various phases in a quality process improvement. At Northrop Grumman, processes are improved using the Six Sigma process. The Six Sigma process includes five phases. The first stage is to define. This stage requires the team to create a SIPOC, describing suppliers, inputs, process, outputs and customers. Next, identify the customer and data that helps the team understand the customer's critical needs. The team will put together a team charter that includes the business case, which is the business reason for the proposed project, a problem statement specifically answering the what, where, when and to what extent of the project. The next part of the charter is a goal statement that meets the SMART criteria, and confirming that no one else has collected that data (Rath, 2003). Roles and responsibilities are assigned to each team member and documented. The project scope defines the starting point, insurance against scope creep and what constraints might affect the team. Milestones schedule a time limit for reaching each level of the process from start to end by using a Gantt chart of some similar chart. Finally a communication plan is developed for content during team

1. Use of TQM, phase gate model and project management tools ( WBS, Critical path analysis, 3-point estimation and earned value analysis).

Studies have shown that the design stage directly influences more than 70% of a product’s life cycle cost. Companies with high product development effectiveness have earnings three times the average earnings, and have revenue growth two times the average revenue growth.

This is also a process that is able to analyze every step stage of the project. This is beneficial because it helps businesses to know that they are staying on budget and whether the project will be completed on time.

4. Development: The development stage is where the company 's creates specifications of the product, the design, and prototypes. It is also in this stage that the company considers manufacturing constraints.

One of the most essential and critical stages is the design stage. This stage defines cost and milestones. If design is not monitored to meet contract and end user requirements it might end with big losses for the contractor and clients as well.

The development of new product as the Morgan EV3 undergoes (as for every project) different stages within the life cycle of the project, and different phases before a task or a solution to a problem is completed. It is known that a typical project life cycle passes through four phases, which Heerkens (2002, p.12) categorises as: