MIT Master Thesis Abstract Page- Aditya Ranjan

Process Reengineering for New Product Introduction at an Analytical Instrument

Manufacturing Firm

The process of transforming Research and Development knowledge into successful introducing new
products forms a key competency of an innovative company. This new product introduction process was
studied in detail at Waters Corporation.
The process of commercialization spanned a number of departments and lacked functional integration at
departmental interfaces. The current introduction process lacked a number of management processes,
data metrics for evaluation and feedback loops. The product knowledge was lost in the process flow
creating the phenomenon of isolated information compartments in the process and the effect of problem
cascading and amplification was seen downstream. This lead to the phenomenon of firefighting during
the product introduction process. Due to micromanagement of key processes, the Incoming Inspection
department at Waters has been constantly having a backlog of more than 300 lots.
A new process for the creation of a Quality Inspection Plan was proposed. Two important deliverables
detailing critical dimensions and design tolerance was created as per the process. These documents
created as a part of the deliverable during the phase gate review would drive the creation of Quality
Inspection Plan by integrating downstream departments upstream with R&D. Certain sub process within
the commercialization process was selected and the process of standardization was proposed for
feedback- in terms of information and possible data base for metrics creation for continuous
improvement. A set of recommendations was made to strengthen and functionally integrate all the
departments involved in the commercialization process.