Abstract:
The development and marketing of new products and services are amongst the most powerful
weapons that organisations can'use in order to survive and prosper under turbulent global
market conditions. The successful introduction of a new product or service can assist an
organisation to remain competitive by being able to sufficiently address the continuously
changing market requirements. Therefore, the process of New Product / Service Introduction
(NP/SI) constitutes a crucial activity for every organisation.
In an environment of ever shortening product life cycles, increased customer expectation,
technology advancements and increased market competition, the only factor that remains
constant within a modem manufacturing operation is change. Such changes are ultimately
reflected in the products and the manufacturing processes. One particular type of change
apparent within a manufacturing or assembly environment is engineering change (EQ. The
changes or modifications in forms, fits, materials, dimensions, functions, etc. of a product or
component are usually referred to as ECs.
The aims of this thesis were fulfilled by using the technique of System Dynamics (SD) in order
to model and simulate the generic structure of the NP/Sl process and to identify ways to
improve it. The results of the simulation were also used for developing an Engineering Change
Management System which was then modelled by using the same technique of SD. In this
attempt, two Greek organisations collaborated by providing data and information in order to
investigate the existence of a cost-time-quality relationship throughout the NP/SI process.
