KONE’s NPD Process Model

KONE has established five core processes. These are called Solution Creation, Customer, De-livery, Maintenance and Management and Support processes. The solution creation process is most relevant for this thesis, as it contains the PD process of KONE. It comprises of five sub-processes; Develop Technology, Develop Concepts, Develop Products, Manage Product Change and Improve Quality & Reliability. The five core processes and the solution creation sub-processes are presented in Figure 3.1. (Solution creation 2012)

Figure 3.1. KONE core processes and solution creation process break-down. (Develop products 2012)

The center of the core process “flower” depicts how the common management and support process governs the rest of the core processes and the overlapping yellow areas depict

co-operation between processes. As can be seen from the sub-process description, improvement of quality and reliability is not a single effort, but continuing process that acts in the back-ground during the product development and product change management processes until the product is retired.

The technology development process is also called the GREEN process (Green process) and it contains all basic research that aims to find concept and process ideas as well as enable tech-nologies for the concept development process. (Technology development 2012)

The tasks of Research Department include:

- Maintaining Strategic Research Areas (SRA) - Maintaining Research Portfolio

- Negotiating contracts

- Evaluating invention disclosures - Facilitating IPR-trade

- Following patents

- Running patenting process

- Supporting/facilitating public funding - Participating in code/standard coordination

Some of the research is outsourced to other companies and universities. Individual studies and projects are carried out with various different collaborating parties and longest projects may last even from 3 to 6 years. Due to the varying tasks and project times of the Research De-partment there is no strict process description of the Green process.

Ideas and opportunities are also gathered from the offering department as well as from KONE’s other staff that can post its thoughts and development suggestions into Innovation Tool. Innovation Tool is a portal where employees can post and evaluate each other’s ideas.

(Technology development 2012)

The concept development is referred as the BLUE process (Blue process), and its main func-tion is to gather promising ideas and concepts from the Green process for further study. The Blue Steering is a board of managers deciding on the projects that move from the Green pro-cess to the Blue propro-cess for further studying. The chosen ideas are tested and benchmarked from both technological and business point of view. The ideas that do not seem attractive in either one of these are rejected. The aim of the Blue process is to reject non-viable ideas at the earliest point possible, with as little time and money consumed by them as possible. (Concept development 2012)

The product development process is also referred as the RED process (Red process), and it contains the specification, prototyping, process preparation, piloting and the ramp-up of the volume production. During the Red process the product change management (PCM) depart-ment participates to the ramp-up of production. After that it maintains the product until it is retired and finally terminated. R&D department supports PCM functions in questions related to product change requests and possible design improvements.

For modeling these processes, KONE uses a traditional point-based Stage-Gate model where gates are referred as K-milestones. The model fits Cooper’s description of 3^rd generation State-Gate, as some flexibility is built in the milestones, so that if some less important requirement is not fulfilled at the milestone, it can be handled on the next milestone, or even during the phase between the milestones (Cooper 1994).

Figure 3.2 depicts the KONE PD as presented by Process Developer Specialist (KONE PDS) from the preliminary study of the Blue process to the production ramp-up and until the product is eventually terminated.

Figure 3.2. KONE’s K-Milestone process model

In addition to the Stage-Gate model, KONE utilizes a matrix presentation of the Red process, referred as the PD-matrix. Initially the PD-matrix was intended as a check list for the project management, but later it has been formalized as an official tool for the development projects.

The matrix consists of all the milestones lined on the topmost row and all the responsibility areas like customer relations, or technology development, listed on the first column. Actions for fulfilling the requirements of the responsibility areas in each stage of the project are marked to the cells of the matrix. An illustration of the PD-matrix is presented in Figure 3.3.

Figure 3.3. The principle of KONE’s PD-matrix

The requirements for each milestone are predefined in the previous Milestone review. In the milestone reviews the stakeholders check if the required information is provided by the project manager and then they give red, yellow or green color for the project on behalf of their re-sponsibility area. The colors work with traffic light logic; green means that everything is in order, yellow shows some concern and may pose some further questions for the next milestone and red stops the project from entering the next phase. The colors allow some flexibility in the process, as the project may proceed to the next phase even if some areas are yellow. At least on behalf of the flexible milestones, the KONE Stage-Gate model fulfills the requirements for 3^rd generation Stage-Gate.

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Development

project preparation Specification Prototyping Process preparation Piloting Ramp-up

SellCreate demand

The PD-matrix also defines all product related documentation that is needed. In addition the milestone review reports are archived along with the project report that is compiled upon clos-ing the project in milestone K6.