THE STATE OF

MANUFACTURERS’ NEW
PRODUCT INTRODUCTION
(NPI) PROCESSES
Survey Report of Manufacturers
Using SAP® ERP Systems
Who should read this report? TABLE OF CONTENTS
If you work for a large manufacturer that uses SAP ERP and are
involved in launching new products, we think you’ll find the SECTION
results of our NPI survey interesting.
01 Why study the NPI process? 03

Whether you are responsible for a line of products or are in a

supply chain, IT or master data role, this report is a great way
to learn what your peers are doing and planning to do when SECTION

it comes to their New Product Introduction (NPI) or product

launch processes.
02 Key findings 05

What do we mean by NPI? SECTION

03 Survey results 06

In this report, we define NPI as the process that starts when you
decide to take a product to market—that could be any product
variant, including innovative new products, line or geographic SECTION

extensions, simple ingredient or packaging changes, etc.

04 NPI case study 11

NPI (sometimes referred to as commercialization) is all about

collecting and entering the data into SAP that your supply chain
or operations team needs to make and distribute the product SECTION

and meet launch dates. 05 Respondent demographics 20

Managing critical tasks like sourcing new materials, or getting

new artwork designed is also part of the NPI process.
SECTION

06 Winshuttle’s NPI solution 22

Given the disruptive forces at play, competing
and achieving new growth will demand
manufacturers to innovate new products and
adapt business models at a faster pace and
on a larger scale than ever before.
KPMG’s U.S. CEO Outlook 2016 
CEO CONCERNS
The loyalty of our customers 90%
How the wants and needs of
millennials will change the business 86%
The relevance of our products/
services three years from now 78%
Keeping up with customers’ needs
and expectations 53%
WHY STUDY THE
NPI PROCESS?
Since 2003, Winshuttle has helped manufacturers who run their
business on SAP to digitize and streamline their operations.
A couple of years ago we noticed that more customers needed
to speed up their product launch processes.
Curious to understand what could be driving the need to get
to market faster, we investigated trends in manufacturing and
conducted in-depth interviews with dozens of supply-chain
professionals.
This qualitative research revealed that in many sectors,
manufacturers were feeling intense market pressure.
Shifting consumer demographics and rapid technological
change were, and still are creating opportunities for smaller,
more agile companies to disrupt markets and make significant
dents in the profits of larger, established brands.
As the stats from KPMG clearly show, CEOs from the largest
companies have many causes for concern.
In 2017, we surveyed over 120 manufacturing professionals
across the globe. We wanted to gauge how they felt about
market dynamics, to understand how they currently launch
products, and their future plans for this key operational process.
As you’ll discover in the coming pages, the results are clear.

The vast majority of respondents realize that they must be

more agile to compete with new market entrants.

And it’s not just consumer goods manufacturers that are feeling
the pressure to move faster. Manufacturers across sectors
understand that in today’s new dynamic landscape, every day
counts.

We’ve seen firsthand how reducing launch cycle time by 50% or

more can have a dramatic impact on revenue and the ability to
win new business.

The first-to-market advantage can mean the difference between

success and failure in competitive market segments.

We hope you enjoy reading this report and are inspired to make
changes in your organization to increase your speed to market,
improve data quality, and reduce operational costs.
Changes in shopping habits are taking
The Winshuttle Solutions Marketing Team
a growing toll on big consumer brands,
and the responses of the product makers
could ripple across consumer-goods
supply chains.
Learn how to reduce your launch cycle time by 50% or
more with Winshuttle’s NPI solution. Wall Street Journal, April 2017
 KEY FINDINGS
The majority of manufacturing professionals across industry
segments are under pressure to launch products faster and
scale their operations.
1. Automate data collection and entry
With manual processes still prevalent for over half of
respondents, it’s not surprising that automating data collection 2. Increase visibility into launch status
and entry was the number one way respondents believed they
could impact their launch processes.
3. Improve data quality

75% 51% 75% Top 3 ways to

improve launch
Are under Are still using Expect processes
pressure to speed manual launch launch volume to
up launches processes increase
SURVEY RESULTS
Survey Report of Manufacturers
Using SAP® ERP Systems

Is your company under pressure
to reduce the time it takes to get
products launched?
THE PRESSURE IS ON
TO MOVE FASTER
75% of our respondents are under pressure to get products to market
faster. That’s not surprising given the factors we outlined at the
beginning of this report.

In today’s competitive landscape, getting your products on the shelves

days, weeks or even months earlier can not only yield incremental
revenue but give you a critical first-to-market advantage and enable you
to win short lead-time business or establish a beachhead.

We’ve seen firsthand how a digitized and streamlined NPI process can

75
make the difference between product success and failure.

%
YES The systems and processes need to
match the speed of the market.
Sr. Product Development Manager
Major CPG manufacturer
BUT THAT PRESSURE
VARIES BY INDUSTRY
SEGMENT Is your company under pressure
There is definitely more pressure on pure consumer goods
to reduce the time it takes to get
companies to get products on shelves faster. Given the shifting products launched?
demographics and consumption patterns we all experience
every day, we were surprised this number was only 80%.

While some companies whose products are just used by

businesses feel they might be able to take it easy, the majority
still feel that moving faster is important to them too. This seems
like a smart way to look at things given that changing market
80% 66% 70%
YES YES YES
dynamics are affecting all sectors of manufacturing.

Those who don’t gain the speed and agility needed to stay Products Products Products used
ahead of the market and adapt to new business models may used just by used just by by consumers &
well find themselves left in the wake of new market entrants. consumers businesses businesses
The 20 largest consumer
packaged goods companies last
year had flat sales while smaller
ones posted sales growth of 2.4%,
according to Nielsen.
Wall Street Journal, April 2017
 6%
SO HOW MUCH FASTER Reduce by greater than 50%

DO MANUFACTURERS
WANT TO GO?
For the 75% of people that told us they wanted to move faster,
we probed a little into their need for speed. 22%
While 45% of respondents didn’t know of any set goals, the Reduce by 26-
other 55% had targets in mind. 50%

Only 6% were aiming to cut their NPI cycle time by 50% which
is interesting as we’ve routinely helped customers drive at
least that much efficiency by digitizing and streamlining their What’s your
launch process.

On the next page, find out how we helped one organization

goal for reducing 45%
significantly speed up their time to market. your NPI cycle We don’t have

19% time?
any goals

Reduce by 11-
25%

8%
Reduce by
10% or less
A SMOOTHER, FASTER
PRODUCT LAUNCH
Cooper Tires & Rubber Company needed a better way to
handle their lengthy NPI process. One specific problem their
procurement team had was a lack of lead time for sourcing raw
materials and tire molds at favorable pricing.

Cooper Tires worked with Winshuttle to implement a multi-

stage data collection process for their product launches.
The solution included the set up of all material types, bill of
materials, purchase info records, and routings.

The results were impressive. The procurement team had the

information early enough in the process to secure better pricing
from their suppliers, leading to significant cost savings.

Cooper Tire’s data stewards were able to reduce the time it took
to create and extend materials by over 90%, and thanks to rule-
based checks in the system, they also reduced duplicate data in
the system.

Project managers were given dashboards to gain visibility into

launch status so they could help the cross-functional teams
stay on track.
Which of the following best
describes how you manage your
THERE’S STILL A LOT OF
NPI processes today? MANUAL WORK
For this question, respondents could choose multiple answers. We
42% weren’t surprised to learn that 51% are still using manual methods.

Spreadsheets are still king when it comes to manual data collection,

but paper forms are still hanging in there too. We’ve even seen some
customers using PowerPoint to collect new product data!
31% When processes are automated, it’s ‘home-grown’ solutions that win
the day. And those usually come with their own set of issues—slow
and expensive to maintain, inflexible, old technology, etc.—but you
probably know that already.

18%

9%
MANUAL AUTOMATED AUTOMATED MANUAL
Using paper Using third- Using Spreadsheets
forms party workflow “Home Grown” & email
solution solution
MANY COMPANIES ARE IN
TOTAL MANUAL MODE
We found that 37% of respondents live in a totally manual
world for their NPI process. We actually expected this number
to be higher.

We come across customers in this situation every day — even

though this is a big, complex process that involves multiple SAP 44% 37%
master data objects, thousands of data fields, and from our
experience at least eight departments.
Automated only Manual only
If you’re living in manual mode, you know that the whole
process can be painfully slow and error-prone. Data often gets
missed, and you have to spend lots of time ‘cat herding’ to
figure out who owes what data. Then there’s the inevitable data
entry chaos and overtime as the launch date looms.

We also suspect that many of the automated or semi-

automated processes leave a lot to be desired—especially the
‘home-grown’ solutions.

19%
Both automated
and manual
MORE AND MORE
LAUNCHES ARE ON THE
HORIZON Over the next four years, do you expect
We asked the manufacturing professionals to tell us what they
the number of new products (including
thought would happen to the volume of new product launches all product variants) to:
in the next few years.

Three-quarters of them expected to be scaling up operations.

Not surprising given the market dynamics and all of the
product variants that teams have to launch including net new
products, line extensions, expansion into new geographies and
component or labeling changes.
75% 21% 4%
Even the simplest replacement of a single ingredient sets off
a complex chain of events across multiple departments, and Increase Stay the same Decrease
requires careful project management lest something important
falls through the cracks—like sourcing the new ingredient!
 What do you estimate your growth
in new products launched will be in
TIME TO SCALE UP the next four years?
OPERATIONS
As you saw on the last page, 75% of respondents across
market lines believe they’ll be launching more products in
1%
the next four years. The amount of growth they expect varies
by market. 7%
19% 17%
Companies making consumer products were much more
bullish than those making products used by businesses, with 33%
67% predicting growth of more than 25%, compared to only ALL 46% BUSINESS 6% CONSUMER
PRODUCTS PRODUCTS
one-quarter of B2B respondents estimating an increase in 46%
new products over 25%.
74%
50%

Grow by < 25% Grow by > 51 - 100%

Grow by > 26 - 50% Grow by > 100%

 What challenges does your
SPEED BUMPS IN THE company face with your
LAUNCH PROCESS current NPI process?
So we’ve established that the vast majority of manufacturers need to
get products to market faster and they’re expecting a lot of growth, but 60%
there are a few speed bumps ahead that hamper progress — and not
just for those companies with manual launch processes.

Here you can see the percentages of respondents that identified

with the most common challenges we’ve uncovered among our
manufacturing customers. If these problems sound a little too familiar, 43% 43%
read on to see what these product launch champions need to do to 41%
meet these challenges. 39%
34%

Too Lack of Too many Unpredict- Not No

slow visibility errors ability enough support for
resources variations
BUT WHAT ABOUT YOUR No robust joined up
process, making it slow
Highly manual, no
good onboarding for
Making process faster
in terms of availability
BIGGEST CHALLENGE? and cumbersome. new hires on the process,
gets done with tribal
of resources, workflow
and data flow.
We asked people to tell us in their own words what their biggest knowledge, thus, takes
challenge is when launching new products. They weren’t shy. too long, no scale, not
repeatable.
Any of these sound familiar?

Manual process and Lack of transparency Lack of visibility to

lack of visibility of the and understanding leadership.
different phases. of the complete
process, including why
information has to be
filled in.
It is a
nightmare! Visibility, collaboration, Getting data (materials, Coordinating
first-pass data quality, BOMs, etc.) released the timing of multiple,
readiness. and saleable in SAP in a related new products.
timely manner with no
errors.
 What’s the most impactful
thing your company could do
to improve your NPI process?
Automate data collection and entry into our systems
29%
GIVE ME MORE AUTOMATION,
QUALITY AND VISIBILITY
The number one way people felt they could solve the myriad of
challenges with their NPI process was to automate data collection and
data entry.

Improving data governance and quality came in a close second.

Improving visibility into the process and having the flexibility to make
Have better data governance and validation
23% changes are also high on the list of factors that respondents believe can
impact their NPI process.
Gain more process visibility
16% It was comforting to see that only 9% were thinking about streamlining
their manual processes. Probably not a great end game in itself, but
maybe a good first step in preparing to digitize the process.
Ability to quickly make
process changes 12%
Streamline our existing
manual processes 9%
Other
7%
Add more
headcount 4%
 Which department in your
company has overall responsibility
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE for launching products on time?
FOR LAUNCHES? IT
DEPENDS ON WHO USES
THE PRODUCTS. 8%
Product launches can be fraught and stressful, especially for 29%
those in charge of meeting launch dates. And as you know,
missing those dates is not an option.
22%
Across industry segments, product teams are most often the BUSINESS 42% CONSUMER
ones driving launches, but that varied when you sliced the PRODUCTS 10% PRODUCTS
data by who uses the products. 50%
For pure B2B companies, R&D were most often responsible
for meeting launch deadlines. While in companies that
39%
make consumer goods, 50% of launches were driven by
product teams.

Brand/Product or
Research & Development
Marketing Management

Operations/
Other
Supply Chain
SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS: 2%
INDUSTRY 2% 1%
1% 5%
Aerospace & Defense Industrial Machinery & Components
9%

6%
Apparel & Footwear Manufacturing - durables
10%
Appliances & Commercial Medical Devices & Scientific 7%
Machinery Instruments 2%
INDUSTRY
Automotive Oil & Gas
6% n=127
13%
Chemicals Other

Consumer Products Packaging & building Materials 9%

Food & Beverage Pharmaceuticals 6% 14%

6%
Furnishings, Fixtures, & Tools Telecomm

High Tech & Electronics (blank) 2%

 2% SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS:
2% 2%
2% DEPARTMENT

6% Brand, Product or Supply Chain/Operations

Commercialization Management
R&D
Data Management Organization
22% Quality
Information Technology
Engineering
28% DEPARTMENT Other

n=127 Shared Services/COE

19%
10% 26%
PRODUCTS
USED BY 49% Both
32% Businesses

Consumers
GET FROM “GO” TO
LAUNCH, FASTER
Digitize your NPI process with Winshuttle and stay ahead of
your market. We help you get product data into your SAP PRODUCT OPERATIONS/
PROCESS DATA CRITICAL TASKS
system quickly and manage all critical tasks in between a “go” DEVELOPMENT SUPPLY CHAIN
from R&D and product launch.

Transform your slow, manual and error-prone launches into

fast, scalable and agile processes with Winshuttle’s New
Product Introduction solution.

Visit winshuttle.com/npi to learn how.