Student guide International Program A.Y. 2005/06

The highly competitive market context of today, characterised by the advent of companies based in low-labour cost countries competing directly with equivalent products, has prompted a search for novel rationales and operational approaches to competition.
The ability to innovate is one of the principal levers that companies located in the "old world" have chosen to employ, and the ability to manage innovation is becoming an essential condition for survival, especially within the Italian industrial context (composed prevalently of SMEs).

In light of this dynamic, complex and evolving market situation, the course provides a thorough grounding in the modern methods for generating innovation within processes for developing new products or services.

The course is divided into four main sections, covering the following topics:

Part One - Innovation

1. Introduction to the topic of innovation
2. Levels of innovation
3. The innovation process
4. Difficulty in innovating
5. Innovation = managerial process
6. Competitiveness through innovation
7. Success through product development
8. Role of the Project Manager
9. Strategic product planning
10. Types of development
11. The Product Plan

Part Two - Search for the new product

12. The development process
13. Structures for development
14. Definition of Concept Development
15. Identifying the needs of the client
16. Defining specific product targets
17. Analysis of the competition
18. Positioning on the market
19. The value chain
20. Generation of product concepts
21. Mortality curve of ideas
22. Concept search methods
23. Selection of product concepts
24. Final specifications of the new product
25. Quality Functional Deployment (QFD)

Part Three - The economic aspects

26. Economic analysis
27. Quantitative analysis
28. Cash Flow for a new product
29. Net Present Value (NPV);
30. Risk analysis
31. The Business Plan

Part Four - Technical development

32. Technical development of the product
33. Architecture of the project
34. Industrial design
35. Evaluation of costs
36. Management of costs
37. Reduction of costs: Design for Manufacturing and Value Analysis
38. The design cycle
39. Product and process engineering
40. The prototype
41. Prototyping methods
42. Setting up the production structure and pre-production
43. The market launch plan
44. The communication plan
45. Training and pre/after sales services