Literature Review: Product Development and Management Control

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Formulations, packaging and costings

During the design and testing stage I observed the CoPT members of the CoPPT making product formulation samples, examining packaging options and computing costings. These activities were done to ensure the product met the expected specifications. Final product formulations were made in the technology laboratory by the members of the CoPT on the CoPPT. While these formulations were similar to the ones made during the product feasibility stage the level of detail required at this stage was much higher. This is because it was difficult to change the product formulations once the product had been launched as a change in ingredients would affect the nutritional information on the packaging and a change in packaging was expensive to make because of minimum order quantities.

Semi-radical projects

During semi-radical projects the PMO project progress report (Figure 42, on page 190) was usually used during interactions between the members of the CoPPT and members of the CoPFMPD. The CoPPT leader updated the PMO progress report every week after consulting with the other members of the CoPPT. A brief example of a product formulation- /packaging/costing discussion using a PMO progress report is given below. CoPPT leader “Some sample [packaging] has been made. Two should arrive today. [The supplier] was to have made the [packaging] tool today but that has been put on hold. We 193 may need to do a redesign when we have tested how the [packaging] can be stacked. There needs to be more research here as [X] is a problem. Can we do [Y] on all our products? What will be the cost? [The CoPT member] is working on this. All these are interrelated. I will present back on this next week.” CoPFM “Can we take these decisions off the critical path and do some more research on this later?” CoPFM “We need to understand what pressures are going to be placed on the [packaging] when stacked against each other.” CoPPT leader “Costing for this is being done by [the CoPF member]. I need someone in marketing to do the descriptors. I also need [an ingredient list] by [this date].”

Radical projects

For radical projects the PMO project report document and product and packaging models were both used extensively. This does not mean that numbers were not used at all, but they did not seem to be used as much as for other types of projects. During these projects the CoPPT leader would write-up a PMO project report weekly after talking with all the members of the CoPPT. These PMO project reports were then presented to the CoPEM during their weekly meetings to update project progress. During the design and testing of radical products the product and packaging models were also used when CoPPT interacted with members of the CoPFM and CoPEM. During the design and testing stage, members of the CoPFM and CoPEM would often visit the technology laboratory to sample the product and discuss project issues.

Commentary on the formulation, packaging and costing activities

During the formulation, packaging and costing activities the members of the CoPPT interacted with members of the CoPFM and CoPEM using numbers, documents and models. For incremental projects communities of practice used mainly numbers while for semiradical projects they used numbers and documents and finally for radical projects they used numbers, documents and models. When members of the CoPFM and CoPEM interacted with the members of the CoPPT during these activities the role of management control seemed to be focused on reducing technical and marketing uncertainty associated with product formulation options, packaging design options and product costings.

Packaging artwork and product promotion activities

At the same time that members of the CoPT worked on designing and testing the product and packaging and computing the costings, the members of the CoPM from the CoPPT designed the artwork for the packaging and worked with advertising companies on the promotional material. When the member of the CoPM on the CoPPT received artwork templates and promotion samples from the advertising agency they met with members of the CoPFM and CoPEM to get their feedback on the selection of the best option, as getting the approval of members of the CoPFM and CoPEM was necessary to get approval to proceed with one of the options. The input of managers was important because the promotional material and the artwork on the product’s packaging were the main ways for OpCo to accomplish their brand strategy.

Semi-radical projects

For semi-radical projects the packaging artwork and promotion activity was more complicated with members of the CoPFM and CoPEM playing a larger role than for incremental projects. This was because these products were new in some way to the market and thus required a new concept. These breadth of these concepts was limited though as they had to fit in with other products offered by the firm in that category. Thus the base of the packaging artwork and promotional material was the current products in the category. But, unlike the incremental projects, there was a greater range of options to be considered.

Table of Contents :

• Abstract
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Abbreviations
• List of Key Terminology
• Chapter 1: Introduction
  • 1.1 Introduction
  • 1.2 The importance of product development
  • 1.3 Defining management controls
  • 1.4 Management control perspectives
  • 1.5 Product development
  • 1.6 Product development project types
  • 1.7 The product development process
  • 1.8 Research approach
  • 1.9 Outline of the thesis
• Chapter 2: Literature Review: Product Development and Management Control
  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 The product development literature
    • 2.2.1 Rational plan stream
    • 2.2.2 Communication web stream
    • 2.2.3 Disciplined problem solving stream
    • 2.2.4 Conclusion
  • 2.3 Product development project types and management controls
    • 2.3.1 Incremental projects
    • 2.3.2 Radical projects
    • 2.3.3 Semi-radical projects
    • 2.3.4 Conclusion
  • 2.4 Management control in product development
    • 2.4.1 Literature on management control in research and development (R&D)
    • 2.4.2 Literature on management control in product development
    • 2.4.3 Conclusion
  • 2.5 Summary
  • 2.6 First research question
• Chapter 3: Practice Theory
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 Practice theory
  • 3.3 Ethnomethodology
    • 3.3.1 Ethnomethodology, management control and the organisation
    • 3.3.2 Knowledge in practice
  • 3.4 Communities of practice and the community of interest
    • 3.4.1 Communities of practice
    • 3.4.2 Community of interest
  • 3.5 Organisation Boundaries
    • 3.5.1 Syntactic boundaries
    • 3.5.2 Semantic boundaries
    • 3.5.3 Pragmatic boundaries
    • 3.5.4 Organisation boundaries and management control
  • 3.6 Boundary objects
    • 3.6.1 Numbers
    • 3.6.2 Documents
    • 3.6.3 Models
    • 3.6.4 Summary of boundary objects
  • 3.7 Summary
  • 3.8 Second research question
• 3.9 Conclusion: Chapters 2 and
• Chapter 4: Field Site and Research Method
  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 Field site and material
  • 4.3 Ethnomethodology and participant observation
  • 4.4 Overview of OpCo
    • 4.4.1 OpCo’s operations
    • 4.4.2 OpCo’s structure
    • 4.4.3 Communities of practice at OpCo
    • 4.4.4 Boundary objects at OpCo
    • 4.4.5 An overview of OpCo’s product development process
  • 4.5 Ethical considerations
  • 4.6 Intellectual property and confidentiality agreement
  • 4.7 Summary
• Chapter 5: Field Study Part 1 – The Product Development Process at OpCo:
  • Idea Generation to Project Screen
  • 5.1 Introduction
  • 5.2 Stage 1: Idea generation
    • 5.2.1 Market analysis
    • 5.2.2 Brainstorming
    • 5.2.3 Ideation
    • 5.2.4 Presentations
    • 5.2.5 Activities in the technology laboratory
    • 5.2.6 Summary and commentary on the idea generation stage
  • 5.3 Gate 1: Idea screen
    • 5.3.1 Idea ranking
    • 5.3.2 Commentary on idea ranking
    • 5.3.3 Idea selection
    • 5.3.4 Commentary on idea selection
    • 5.3.5 Summary and commentary on the idea screen gate
  • 5.4 Stage 2: Project planning
    • 5.4.1 Project briefs
    • 5.4.2 Commentary on the project brief activity
    • 5.4.3 Project initiation
    • 5.4.4 Commentary on the project initiation activity
    • 5.4.5 Summary and commentary on the project planning stage
  • 5.5 Gate 2: Project screen
• Chapter 6: Field Study Part 2 – The Product Development Process at OpCo: Product Feasibility to Launch
• Chapter 7: Summary and Conclusion
  • Appendix
  • References

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An Empirical Study of Management Controls in Product Development