The ability of a company to build a knowledge core and continuously create new
knowledge is critical to the success of product development. There are four areas
where knowledge is needed for product development:
? the different cultures of the world, their needs, wants and attitudes, and how
they can assimilate and absorb new products;
? basic knowledge and skills of present raw material production and food
processing;
? high technological knowledge and problem-solving skills to develop new
technologies;
? product development systems and organisation.
Basically this is applying the total technology concept to food product
development – society, company environment, company resources, knowledge,
organisation, techniques and the practice of product development. Management
selects and integrates the knowledge in the company, and provides the conditions
for knowledge to be created. There has to be a communications system in the
company so that knowledge spreads and grows throughout the company.
Knowledge is dynamic, causing change. It is important to recognise that
knowledge is not just information and databases, but it is part of the active
development in the company in organising the present system and activities, and
also in developing new systems and activities. Information can be the basis for
revealing and creating knowledge, but knowledge is in people – in their heads, in
their problem-solving skills. It is in their understanding of the interaction between
technology and society and also of the specific interactions of the consumer and
the product, the worker and the processing plant, the salesperson and the retail
outlet, the cook and the kitchen, and so on.
4
The knowledge base for product
development
Knowledge causes change; information is the basis of change. Today, there is
increasing emphasis of this being a ‘knowledge society’, as if knowledge is
something new. Knowledge has been around for a long time; there are periods
when it increases and sometimes, as in the Dark Ages, when it seemed to lose
ground. What is different at the beginning of the new millennium is that
communication between people has been made much easier; and communication
does increase knowledge if the information is absorbed and used in the minds of
people. But what does this increasing interchange mean to the food industry?
4.1 Technology, knowledge and the food system
Technology takes knowledge and creates products, processes and services for the
use of people. At the heart of technology lies the ability to recognise a human
need or desire (actual or potential) and then to devise a means – an invention or a
new design – to satisfy it economically. Having done so, the model or prototype
has to be scaled up and adapted to become a marketable item. The process of
turning the full-scale product into something that satisfies market requirements of
safety, cost/profit effectiveness and customer acceptance is a difficult one
(Cardwell, 1994). A company not only has to have a store of knowledge but it has
to create knowledge during the development of the product, process and service.
It also has to connect different types of knowledge during the development –
technological, commercial and organisational. After the development, it has not
only transformed the knowledge into practical applications but it has increased its
own store of knowledge by the knowledge it has created.
Two types of knowledge are recognised – disembodied (before and during
development) and embodied (after development). The disembodied knowledge
goes eventually to the embodied product in product development:
Disembodied knowledge C33 Disembodied innovative activities C33 Embodied product
That is:
Tacit knowledge in people’s heads + Explicit (codified) knowledge in records
C33 Knowledge creation in PD Process C33 New product
There are four important areas of disembodied and embodied knowledge:
technology, technological change, innovative activities and technological
indicators that are important for product development (Evangelista, 1999), as
shown in Table 4.1. A company has a stock of technological knowledge, and
then generates more knowledge during its innovative activities to produce
productive assets, including products, plants and marketing systems.
In product development, as in all engineering and design, there is a major use
of the knowledge that is in people’s heads from their education and more
importantly from their experience – called either tacit (as used in this book) or
embedded knowledge. There is also use of recorded knowledge in reports,
150 Food product development
textbooks and journals, called either explicit (as used in this book) or codified
knowledge.
4.1.1 Knowledge in the food system
In a study of the Italian industry, Evangelista (1999) placed the food and drink
industries in the investment intensive sector. The other sectors were:
? R&D/investment intensive;
? R&D (research and development) and D&E (design and engineering)
innovators;
? technology users.
In his investment intensive sector, investment activities play an important role,
while research, development, design and engineering play marginal roles.
Process innovations are very common and innovation performance is linked to
investment in technologically new machinery and equipment. Other processing
industries, chemicals and sugar in the investment intensive sector and
pharmaceuticals in the R&D/investment intensive sector had higher research,
development, design and engineering activities. Pharmaceuticals had high R&D
and D&E expenditures accompanied by medium or high levels of investment in
machinery, innovation being clearly oriented towards the introduction of product
innovations. Comparing companies in Europe in Table 4.2, this greater emphasis
Table 4.1 Concepts of technology
Disembodied
Disembodied technology: stock of technological knowledge both embodied in people and
expressed in a codified form.
Disembodied technological change: process of advancing technological knowledge.
Disembodied innovative activities: activities carried out at the firm level to generate or
develop new technological knowledge.
Disembodied technological indicators: R&D expenditures and personnel, design and
engineering activities, patent and licence counts, technology flows measured by the
technological balance of payments and bibliometric data.
Embodied
Embodied technology: stock of technological productive assets consisting of machinery,
equipment, plant and operating systems (both tangible and intangible).
Embodied technological change: accumulation of new technical assets (machinery,
equipment, plant and operating systems).
Embodied innovative activities: innovative activities consisting of the use or adoption of
new productive assets with enhanced technical and technological performances compared
with those used before.
Embodied technological and innovative indicators: investment in new machinery,
equipment and plant incorporating new (or not yet used) technologies; indicators
measuring the adoption and diffusion of embodied technologies.
Source: From Evangelista, 1999, by permission of Rinaldo Evangelista and Edward Elgar Publishing
Ltd.
The knowledge base for product development 151
on process innovation in the food industry was clearly shown (Evangelista,
1999).
One recognises that food manufacturing is essentially a supplier-dominated
industry with ingredients from the chemical industry and large food ingredients
processors and equipment from mechanical/electrical manufacturers. Knowl-
edge is bought in by food manufacturers from the suppliers, there is often less
creation of knowledge than in the supplier industries (Hood et al., 1995). This
knowledge generation and transfer is emphasised at the food congresses where a
large number of suppliers not only exhibit their products and equipment but also
give or sponsor many of the papers at the meeting. An interesting recent
example demonstrating the limitations of product development when relying
heavily on outside sources of technology was shown by Martinez and Burns
(1999) when studying the Spanish food and drink industry. They found product
technology was predominantly in-house generated, process technology com-
bined internal development with external acquisition mainly from equipment
suppliers. Purchase of equipment emerged as the main source of external
technology acquisition as opposed to information gathering procedures. This
reliance on externally generated technological developments had brought about
low levels of technological independence in general and process technology in
particular. The importance of in-house technological capabilities in product and
process innovation, indicates the problems in product development a company
and indeed an industry faces if it relies largely on external sources as opposed to
internal developments. Is it time for food manufacturing to include more R&D
and D&E in product development so as to produce a more sophisticated
technological content in consumer food products? The food manufacturing
industry is probably never going to be a high technological industry but there is
a need for a different balance between R&D, D&E and capital investment in
plant as these are joint determinants of the performance of companies. Wallace
and Schroder (1997) made the following statement which the management of
food industry development might ponder:
Table 4.2 Product and process innovations in European companies
Percentage of firms introducing
Product Process Product and process
innovation innovation innovation
Mechanical 92.8 69.8 62.6
machinery
Chemicals 91.6 75.5 67.1
Food, drink 70.3 93.6 63.9
& tobacco
Source: From Evangelista, 1999, by permission of Rinaldo Evangelista and Edward Elgar Publishing
Ltd.
152 Food product development
Research and development in the food industry is a well-recognised case
of market failure with its private costs and benefits differing from its so-
cial ones. The end result is an under-investment in R&D by private
firms and attempts to justify government supporting it. The question is
how to solve this dilemma. In the meantime, increasing masses of scien-
tific and technical information and analysis are being super-imposed on
a world wide background of rapid legal, political and social change.
Organisations can be grouped as functional, processed-based and societal
knowledge-based. This means that a company can be based on functional
departments such as marketing, production; or it can be an integrated
technological entity; or lastly it can be a technological entity integrated into
society. Is the food industry, which has been mainly functional, moving towards
an integrated technological organisation with management based on societal
knowledge? If so, the knowledge needed in the industry will have to increase
exponentially.
4.1.2 Creation and movement of knowledge in the food system
The passing of knowledge between suppliers and food manufacturers
emphasises that one cannot think of a part of the food industry by itself. In
knowledge creation, each part of the food system is affecting knowledge in
another part. In primary production, knowledge creation has been very much
government-financed and often government-led. In early years, farming and
fishing were essential for the production of food for the population, and were
often the occupations of many individuals and families. Governments therefore
felt that R&D in food production was their social responsibility. Today scientists
in private and publicly managed agencies do significant basic and applied
research. Governments are still funding agricultural research from government
revenues and often organise agricultural research. For example in the United
States, the US Department of Agriculture is still a major player in agricultural
research and State governments are also involved. Internationally, there are also
United Nations organisations and other world governmental agencies funding
and organising agricultural research. The roles of the different public agencies
and private firms are intertwined in complex ways (Alston et al., 1997).
Surprisingly, research for the fishing industry has never been so extensively
government funded, and one might think that the over-fishing and lowering of
fish stocks has been due to lack of knowledge as much as human greed.
Distribution research has also been an area of government research for many
years because of the need to store and transport food to urban areas, and
internationally. So knowledge increase in the food system is still dependent on
governmental funding and support, except for the food ingredient processing and
consumer product manufacturing which have been among the low spenders on
R&D related to sales among the industries based on process engineering. This
may be due to its only recent emergence as a science-based industry, the
The knowledge base for product development 153
marketing domination in many food companies, the difficulty of controlling
intellectual property in the food industry, and the small margins on which the
food industry works (Earle and Earle, 1997). Much of the knowledge in the food
manufacturing company has been created in incremental product development,
which unfortunately has often not been recorded so it is not an explicit
knowledge base for future product development. Much of the private knowledge
in the food industry is in the large multinational companies, and tends not to go
into the public arena even for the teaching of students in food science/food
technology/food engineering.
Knowledge for product development in the company can be acquired from
outside R&D. It is important to identify the direct access to knowledge and also
the indirect access through information as shown in Fig. 4.1. Many government
agencies provide information in reports, databases and published papers, which
can be developed into useful knowledge by the company. This information can
be stored in libraries or other information storage facilities and on the Internet.
But the company can also work directly with government research agencies,
consultants, ingredients/equipment suppliers, and consumer research companies,
to develop specific knowledge for the company.
Fig. 4.1 Information and knowledge in the food company from outside R&D.
154 Food product development
It is important to recognise the science and technology information tracks so
that they can be tapped into as problems arise in product development. Research
in industry is focused primarily on advancing technology to fulfil changing
consumers’ needs, whereas in universities and in many research institutes it is
focused primarily on advancing either science or generic technology (Betz,
1998). In the science track, the knowledge is published in peer-reviewed
journals and is eventually summarised in textbooks and taught to students,
although with modern funding in universities a significant amount of the
knowledge is not published but is transferred directly and exclusively to the
sponsors of the research. From an understanding of the current state of scientific
knowledge, researchers in engineering and technology advance the knowledge
in their disciplines by research on the basics of the technologies. This basic
technological knowledge is published and taught to the next generation of
engineers and technologists, and transmitted to their counterparts in industry in
conferences and journals. In the early years of a new technology, a company
works mostly with knowledge discovered during the industrial development.
Gradually technological knowledge sources are built up and these can be used in
later development projects. A combined knowledge of the food system, and in
particular the company’s segment of it, is built up over the years by the
company’s R&D and its experience in marketing, production, distribution and
engineering. This is the basis for future product development.
The company also looks for knowledge from its competitors, by studying their
actions and products in the marketplace and their production, raw materials and
processing. Most industries work from a similar technological base; 80% of the
knowledge is known by everyone, maybe even more. In product development it is
the extra 10–20% knowledge that makes the competitive edge, but the company
also needs to have the capability to use fully the basic knowledge.
The company is creating knowledge along the whole system from the initial
R&D to the final outcomes of the product in the market (Quinn, 1992) as shown
in Fig. 4.2. Knowledge is being created and then extended in the next stage
Fig. 4.2 Movement of knowledge through the company (Source: After Quinn, 1992).
The knowledge base for product development 155
where more knowledge is created. Even at the final stages where the new
development has become a commercial reality, there is still knowledge being
created about the product, production and marketing. Although there is a clear
movement of knowledge from one stage to the next, there also needs to be
interconnecting communications of knowledge between all stages so that the
new knowledge is shared and the total company knowledge grows. There is also
a need to evaluate the use and creation of knowledge in product development;
usually the embodied knowledge, particularly the product and its success in the
marketplace, is used as the indicator of the knowledge achieved in the project.
Companies have difficulty in relating the knowledge created by fundamental
research to the company’s final profit. But fundamental research can be
evaluated on the new knowledge and understanding that is passed on to product
development. Just ask the product developers what it would cost them in the
long term if the fundamental or the strategic research disappeared; or if strategic
research improved its performance what extra value would that give to
development! In the food industry in the past 20 years, R&D has tended to be
either dropped or reduced – one wonders how the company valued this asset,
and how much it cost them to buy in this knowledge in the following years, and
how many opportunities were lost. It is important that each knowledge-creating
area is evaluated regularly to find which area is performing in creating
knowledge that leads successfully to the long-term goals.
Invention is difficult to place in the knowledge flow because it is based on
observation of what is happening maybe in a technology or in the community,
unlike science, which is trying to discover new knowledge. Invention is not
necessarily limited by the extent of scientific knowledge; inventors rely on
their accumulated practical knowledge and their own intuition (Cardwell,
1994). Invention requires some conceptual or imaginative creativity. To make
an imagined transformation physically real, it also has to have the necessary
technology, knowledge and skills. So it is an idea that has come to its time –
the idea may have been imagined a long time before but cannot be made real
unless the various factors are present in people’s knowledge and skills
(Mitcham, 1994). The concept of invention is the opposite of the incremental
change. As well as taking place in an individual’s mind over a short period, it
can develop in a group through time together, but not substantially through
systematic design. It is intuitive or even accidental events that lead to
invention. The food industry has in the last 60 years been looking for the
magical invention of a major new method of food preservation, but it has not
come. There have been many improvements in drying, freezing, chilling and
heat sterilisation, but there has not been the invention of a completely new
method. Atmospheric control has been the one new preservation method that
has gradually grown as packaging technology and inert gas production have
improved. Although scientists have been studying it for over 60 years, the
scientific knowledge has grown very slowly, but it is now expanding in
combination with chilling for long-term storage and transport of vegetables,
fruit and meat. Other methods, such as irradiation and the use of gases such as
156 Food product development
methyl bromide, have been used in food preservation, but they are rather blunt
instruments that certainly did not fit with the societal environment.
4.2 Knowledge management or knowledge navigation?
Technological capabilities in product development consist of the resources
needed to generate the technological opportunity and manage the technical
change, including skills, knowledge and experience, and the institutional
structures and linkages. Technological knowledge is usually the most important.
A large part of technological knowledge in product development has a tacit
nature, being incorporated in people skills, competencies and organisations.
Tacit knowledge is often not codified and is largely company- and indeed often
area-specific, and may be difficult to transfer to explicit knowledge. Learning is
often the central method for passing tacit knowledge and building it in the
product development team.
There is also an ever-increasing bank of explicit knowledge used in food
product development, from consumer changes to advancing technology, and it is
difficult to find all the appropriate knowledge for a specific project. It is not
sufficient just to have storage systems for information; there need to be clear
paths to find and assess total knowledge in different areas of the company and
indeed outside the company. Knowledge navigation is a better description than
knowledge management; knowledge navigation includes the strategic directions
for knowledge as well as the knowledge systems. One of the key roles of top
management is to create a culture and environment that is conducive to
knowledge capture and knowledge sharing. Management leads the company into
strategic directions for knowledge.
Think break
Consider your company and its sources of knowledge for product development:
1. Identify a new product that has come from an invention inside the company. What
knowledge did the company need to bring this invention to a commercial product?
2. Choose a product that is being developed at the present time. Identify the tacit
knowledge that was used in the first stage of the product development process,
and the people who supplied this tacit knowledge.
3. Choose a product that has been launched. Identify the explicit (codified)
knowledge that was used in the final stages of this product commercialisation
and launching.
4. Describe how in your company the knowledge created in the product
development project is saved as tacit and explicit knowledge for use in future
projects. Discuss how the saving of this knowledge might be improved in the
future.
The knowledge base for product development 157
4.2.1 Strategic directions for knowledge
It is management’s role to ensure that there are the technological knowledge and
capabilities to fulfil the company’s overall innovation strategy and to implement
product development strategies for the company. It is important to understand
where they have been, where they are at present and where they are going. In the
1990s, there was a spurning of historical knowledge, which ended many times in
‘reinventing the wheel’. Today, there is recognition that there is a need to store a
reasonable percentage of this knowledge in a codified form for the future, because
of the much greater turnover of staff and the loss of tacit knowledge. Total quality
management introduced much more recording of production and product quality
information. Now improved information systems make it much easier to store and
retrieve knowledge of formulations and processing differences. Product formula-
tion is an area where there have been attempts to develop recording systems which
can be used in later product development. For example using case-based systems,
the records of previous formulations – both successful and unsuccessful – are used
as a knowledge source with the product properties and their specifications, which
can be retrieved to find a possible formulation for a new product (Rowe, 2000).
Over the years, this becomes a valuable source of company explicit knowledge,
which can lead also to fundamental knowledge in the specific area of the company.
This is taking the tacit knowledge learned by experience and building it into
generally available explicit knowledge.
Management needs to ensure that there is the needed knowledge in the company
for their product development plans to be carried out. But there is always the
question of how much money should be spent on knowledge in the company both
in people’s minds and in recorded knowledge – how much on people and how
much on an information technology system? Then how should this be split between
the different stages of the product development project? If one looks at the stages
of the product development project and the expenditure of money and man-days
(Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1988) in Fig. 4.3, then we could say that the knowledge
created is related to the man-days expended in gaining it. Figure 4.3 shows how the
expenditure increases as the project goes to commercialisation, but the proportion
of man-days spent was greatest in the product design and testing stage. There is a
large capital expenditure in the later stages of the PD Process at the latest stages,
but it is interesting that in Cooper and Kleinschmidt’s study there was not a related
increase in knowledge as epitomised in the time spent by people in the project.
Management needs to study the pattern of knowledge creation by people in product
development and decide if it is optimal. Management has also to ensure there is
sufficient communication in the company to make full use of the present
knowledge in the company.
There is always a need to identify the knowledge needed in the future, both
short term and in the long term; there may be a need to create new knowledge in
the present product development project. In the incremental innovation strategy,
this is building a bank of knowledge for future projects. But when innovation is
more discontinuous, maybe to a new product platform or a new processing
technology, then there is need for a new knowledge base. This can be a difficult
158 Food product development
and indeed impossible task if management has not been planning ahead. It may
be impossible from the present knowledge level in the company, and therefore
food companies often fall back on capital investment, buying equipment and
knowledge from the equipment manufacturing company.
The management needs a strategic knowledge policy for the company that
identifies the knowledge areas and also the dissemination of the knowledge
within the company. The communications policy must ensure that the
knowledge is not embedded in departments, but can be made available and
integrated by the product development team. This again emphasises the need for
product development to be integrated throughout the functional areas in the
company. The basis for all knowledge is people, and management has to see that
people with the necessary knowledge, skills and capabilities are in the product
development team, and that they are able to create knowledge in the project as it
is needed and communicate this knowledge for future projects. Is management
transmitting this to the human resources group and is it prepared to employ
people with the necessary skills, and reward them for their skills? Tissen (1999)
suggested that these creative, innovative people need to be thought of as highly
as soccer players, with high transfer fees and high salaries. Management also
needs to provide the information system that selects, collects, integrates and
analyses information and also has an interface with the product developers that
leads to efficient recovery of the specific information. This is far beyond the
Fig. 4.3 Man-days (MD) and mean expenditures spent in PD Process (Source: Adapted
from Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 1988).
The knowledge base for product development 159
information system in many food companies at the present time, but companies
should be aiming for it. It is a significant factor that can make product
development more effective and efficient.
Another factor that management needs to consider is the direction for the
company’s knowledge. This grows from the base of present knowledge, which
may lead to skewed directions in building up the future knowledge. For example
the company can be directed by:
? craftsmen and rely on tacit craft knowledge, knowledge which is based on
doing and remembering;
? accountants and rely on financial knowledge;
? engineers and rely on scientifically analysed practical knowledge;
? marketers and rely on social/personal interactions in a marketing situation;
? scientists and rely on scientific logic and method.
There are always several forms of knowledge in the company, but the dominant
knowledge gives the direction to the company, and the other knowledge follows it
Box 4.1 Formation of a product strategy
1. Develop sophisticated scenarios for the competitive environment of
today and the future.
2. For each of the scenarios, describe the ideal successful companies within
the scenario and their attributes, in particular the advantaged and base
knowledge incorporated in their products/services and throughout their
value chains (advantaged knowledge – knowledge that does or can
provide competitive advantage; base knowledge – knowledge internal to
a business that may provide short-term advantage, e.g. best practices).
Also decide on the depth of each knowledge that is needed.
3. Determine who are the current and potential future knowledge leaders in
developing and applying the advantaged and base knowledge elements
identified. For your company, identify the specific internal individuals
who possess the knowledge. Outside the company, it is best to specify
institutions/companies and even individuals who possess the knowledge.
4. Decide where the ideal company should source its knowledge, both internal
and external to the company. Decide on the depth of a particular knowledge
that should be inside the company and the source for the extra knowledge
needed.
5. Choose the ideal company to model your company upon, and develop the
business strategy and routes to reach that ideal. Plan how you are going
to acquire and maintain people with the necessary knowledge.
6. Establish the effects on shareholder value of the particular area of
advantaged knowledge.
Source: From Clarke, 1998, by permission of Research Technology Management.
160 Food product development
and often is at a much lower level. This is seldom realised by the directors who sit
on Boards of companies and give the knowledge direction that is followed by the
executive directors and then the rest of the company. It is important that a wider
knowledge direction is recognised and set for the company. The company needs to
develop a knowledge strategy as shown in Box 4.1.
4.2.2 Knowledge systems
There is a need to select a system for knowledge, but what is it to be? The first
general concept is a combination of the traditional and the new; but the short
answer is that the Western ideology of knowledge may prevent this. One of the
knowledge bases for processing technology is science; however, Western
science as well as not appreciating technology even finds it hard to tolerate
technology that it can neither comprehend nor appropriate (Marglin, 1996). This
has presented problems in food knowledge because it has led to definitions of
food science and food technology as being different, with one thought of as
superior knowledge to the other. This is quite basic to Western thought, with
ideas of episteme and techne:
? episteme is knowledge based on logical deduction from self-evident first
principles;
? techne reveals itself only through practice, its theory being implicit and
usually available to practitioners.
Techne is embodied as well as embedded in a local social, cultural and historical
context (Apfell-Marglin, 1996). Techne knowledge is geared to creation and
Think break
Select four food companies, two manufacturing consumer foods and two processing
food ingredients for food manufacturers, with which you are familiar.
1. Decide what are the overall directions for the companies, and then decide what
are the major and minor knowledge areas in the company.
2. What are the companies’ most important innovations during the last five years?
3. How do these innovations relate to their knowledge areas?
4. Now looking at your own company, identify the different knowledge areas and
discuss firstly the importance of each and then the use of them. Scale the
importance and use on the following scales:
Not important _______________________________________________________ Very important
Seldom used _________________________________________________________ Always used
5. Identify the future innovation directions of the company and decide what
knowledge will be needed for these future innovations.
The knowledge base for product development 161
discovery rather than to verification; it recognises a variety of avenues to
knowledge; the test of knowledge is practical efficacy. This knowledge split
between episteme and techne was epitomised in food industry knowledge by the
craftsman and the food scientist.
But now, knowledge and action are increasingly based on a combination, a
synthesis between episteme and techne. In the food industry it will be the ability to
synthesise a method of product development that combines logical thought with
action in building knowledge, so that greater knowledge develops and therefore
more advanced products. As Apfell-Marglin (1996) noted ‘a particular system has
its own theory of knowledge, its rules for acquiring and sharing knowledge, its own
distinctive ways for changing the content of what counts as knowledge; and finally
its own rules of governance, both among insiders and between insiders and
outsiders.’ Food industry management can do this by making strong access links into
the universities and the research centres, and at the same time providing an
atmosphere and organisation to create new knowledge. This again needs the
adoption of total technology as a basis for company management and in particular
innovation management. The dominance of one function has led to a lack of true
development in the food industry.
? The domination of the financial knowledge system led to cost cutting, staff
redundancy and mergers, which in the end decreased the total knowledge in
the company and the industry.
? The domination of the marketing knowledge system led to deterioration in
technical ability and plant.
? The domination of the production knowledge system led to deterioration in
the consumer/product relationship and loss of competitive strengths.
For successful product innovation, there is a need today for a knowledge system
which integrates and does not allow domination; which accepts and uses the
logical thought and principles of science but actively creates knowledge by
venturing into unknown futures. Product development is a process that is built
on this type of knowledge system as shown in Fig. 4.4.
The knowledge capabilities in product development are related to all the
functions in the company, R&D, intellectual property, engineering, purchasing,
quality assurance, rapid testing of the product, distribution system, personnel,
environmental relations, and so on. Everything and everyone need to be included as
shown in Box 4.2. This is an example of both collecting the company’s information
and of using it to develop new knowledge, new products and new restaurants.
The knowledge system relies mainly on three human factors: cognitive under-
standings, learned skills and deeply held beliefs of individuals (Quinn, 1992).
Quinn chose the term cognitive understanding instead of knowledge to emphasise
that what is needed is a perceptive and understanding knowledge. The PD team
needs the know-how for an activity, and also needs the skills to perform the
activity. But if there is a lack of self-belief, will or motivation to succeed, then the
activity may be completed at a lower level and in a longer time. The company has
to have the know-how to solve the product development problems, the skills to use
162 Food product development
this know-how and develop the commercial product, and the belief in the product
that motivates them to lead the project to product success. Bringing the three
together in people leads to outstanding product designers, process engineers,
marketers, production staff and financial experts. Bringing the three together in
the company Board and in management leads to an outstanding company. The
knowledge system for product development depends less on providing capital and
physical resources (although they are still needed) than on finding and educating
people to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need for product
development in general and for specific tasks in product development.
The knowledge system also needs to share knowledge, and to provide
structures such as teams to encourage this sharing. Knowledge grows when
shared, some people would say exponentially. The company knowledge base
increases with time, the next project starting from a higher knowledge base than
the previous project. Sharing is an excellent way to create knowledge; people
with different knowledge and skills, talking, interacting and working together
rub ideas off each other so that original ideas form. People with specialised
knowledge need to be educated to share their knowledge with other people, so
that they can increase their own knowledge as well as blend in with other
specialist knowledge in the company. One of the great hurdles to knowledge
growth is knowledge snobbery, one type of people thinking they are superior to
others. In a commercial company, which has to deliver successful technology –
products, markets and production – it can be a complete disaster. The aim for
success is interwoven, forward-looking knowledge. It must be realised that there
is a certain limit to the amount of knowledge that people can carry; some can
work only in one area, others may manage two areas, the outstanding people
three or four. Information overload can swamp people. But everyone can
integrate knowledge, if it is in a basic form without speciality details and jargon.
It is important to identify what are the key knowledge areas to have in the
company and concentrate on them. Knowledge can be bought from outside to
Fig. 4.4 Science, engineering and total technology.
The knowledge base for product development 163
fill the gaps; either by employing new people with the knowledge, or contracting
out to consultants and other companies. The choice depends on the long-term
future plans of the company. If the problem is not likely to be met again, at least
far into the future, then it is the time to bring in the consultant; if it is going to be
a major area for the company, then it is more efficient to bring the knowledge
into the company. At all times, there must be sufficient integrated base
Box 4.2 Integration in food service development
General Mills Restaurant Group (GMR) approaches technology in the
broadest possible terms.
At the strategic level
It uses its databases with conceptual mapping techniques to define precise
unserved needs in the away-from-home eating market. GMR’s technologies
can determine not just whether people want Italian food, but whether they
want Italian fast food, dinner-house, mid-priced or up-market; combinations
of foods, prices and values.
? Concept development with inside and external chefs and restaurateurs.
? Concept evaluation with models from databases to select type and
situation of outlet.
? Optimum sites and architectural designs using ‘other’ technologies.
? Optimise site development and construction using PERT (performance
evaluation and review technique) and other operations research tools.
At the operations level
By mixing and matching very detailed performance data from its own
operations and laboratory analyses, GMR can select the best individual pieces
and combinations of kitchen equipment to use in light of investment
considerations, performance characteristics, operating costs, repair needs,
flexibility for different menus, systems fit with other pieces of equipment.
? Facility layout using own experience and data.
? Equipment design using its laboratory data and equipment manufacturers.
? Raw material sources and availability identified from databases and
satellite earth-sensing systems.
? Raw material preparation and handling with suppliers, for maximum
market value and minimum cost.
? Restaurants functioning with integrated electronic point-of-sale and
operations management system directly connected to headquarter’s
computers. Satisfaction tracking surveys with customers.
? Monitoring and analysis of quality, sales and operations.
Source: After Quinn, 1992.
164 Food product development
knowledge inside the company to understand the knowledge needs and to make
the decisions on where the necessary knowledge can be found.
4.3 Necessary knowledge for product development
To change the product idea concept into a new product, knowledge of the raw
materials, processing, product qualities, consumer/product reactions, marketing and
the general environment is needed, as shown in Fig. 4.5. These knowledge areas are
all interacting. For example, processing knowledge affects the knowledge of raw
materials; if low temperature drying were chosen, the microbiological quality of the
raw materials must be carefully controlled to ensure safety in the product. So it is not
a case of seeking knowledge specifically in one area, but interacting this with
knowledge in another area. The consumer may wish to have the liquid in a bottle, but
only cartons can be used in the processing line, so one has to discover how the
consumer reacts to a carton and how they would accept cartons. The descriptions of
Think break
1. Cognitive understanding (knowledge), learned skills and deeply held beliefs of
individuals are identified as important for success in product development. For
each of the four stages of the product development process, identify what you
think are the most important cognitive understandings, learned skills and deeply
held beliefs.
2. Knowledge sharing is important for growing knowledge in a company. Identify
areas in product development where knowledge is shared in your company and
areas where it is not shared. How could you extend knowledge sharing in your
company?
Fig. 4.5 Knowledge for conversion of product concept to new product.
The knowledge base for product development 165
the product by the consumer have to be changed into quantitative terms in the
product qualities; so there is need for knowledge of the consumer’s needs and wants
on product attributes and also the methods of measuring these attributes. Central to
the activities are the two important areas of the consumer and the technology, but
there also needs to be knowledge of the environment. Knowledge of the consumer is
detailed in Chapter 5.
4.3.1 Technological knowledge
The general knowledge areas important in technology are (Gawith, 1999):
? knowledge of science, mathematics, social sciences;
? knowledge of techniques, testing, modelling, interviewing, manipulating
tools, materials and data;
? knowledge of procedures and processes;
? knowledge of generic concepts and ways of thinking.
In product development they can be grouped under products, raw materials,
processing, packaging, distribution and marketing as shown in Table 4.3. This
shows the wide variety of knowledge that is needed in bringing the product from
the concept to the actual product.
For example, consider the development of a protein food. Consumers want a
high-protein food, but what does that mean in percentage of protein? They want a red
colour but what is that measured on a colorimeter? They want a crisp texture but
what is that measured on a texture meter? If the protein content is to be 15%, then it is
necessary to know the protein content of the raw materials; if the colour has to be a
certain red, then the red pigment in the raw materials needs to be identified and
measured. There may also be a need for a certain protein; in breadmaking, there is a
minimum amount of wheat gluten to give the structure of the leavened bread; in
sausage making, only a certain amount of offal can be used because of its poor water-
holding capacity. So the type of protein, the quantity and sometimes the amino acid
composition need to be specified in the product and the raw materials. Different
processing conditions will denature the protein to different extents; limits are set on
the processing variables so that the product has the desired nutritional properties.
Browning, the combination of amino acids and simple carbohydrates, decreases the
value of the protein so the packaging needs to stop absorption of water and also there
need to be limits set on the storage conditions of temperature and humidity. If the
product has achieved a certain nutritional protein value, then this knowledge is
supplied to the consumer in promotion and public relations. So finally the consumer
receives the product, but needs to know how to handle it so that the final food eaten
has the protein nutritional effect that the consumers desired.
This example gives some idea of the knowledge from many disciplines,
which has to be integrated in product development. If there are many specialists
from different areas, the problem is how to combine their knowledge throughout
the project. If there are not many people in the company, the problem is how to
fill the gaps in the knowledge.
166 Food product development
Table 4.3 Types of technological knowledge in product development
Product qualities
Properties: appearance, size, shape, sensory; nutritional, compositional
Use: safety, ergonomics, preparation and serving, eating
Product limits: legal, price
Raw materials
Properties: type, production method, chemical composition, traces of pesticides and
herbicides, toxicity, nutritional composition, sensory and physical properties, micro-
biological counts
Price: price range, relationship of price to quality
Raw material limits: caused by processing needs, product structure needs, other product
properties, quantity available; minimum and maximum needed in the product, effect of
processing on the raw material, legal limits on use
Processing
Unit operations: heating, pasteurisation, sterilisation, freezing, chilling, drying, mixing,
tumbling, pumping, conveying, packing
Unit processes: gelatinisation, hydrolysis, browning, denaturation, oxidation, death of
microorganisms, growth of microorganisms, vitamin destruction
Processing variables: temperature, water activity, atmosphere, time
Costs: raw materials, processing, factory, distribution, marketing and administration
Processing limits: temperature range, rate of increase/decrease in temperature, viscosity
range, mixing speed range, basic equipment design
Packaging
Packaging materials: film, cardboard, metal, glass
Packaging type: bottle, carton, pottle, can, sachet
Packaging method: hand, continuous, automatic, aseptic
Packaging limits: shelf life, protection
Distribution
Transport: roads, rail, sea, air
Transport conditions: time, temperature, humidity, vibration, handling, costs
Storage: ambient, chilled, frozen, atmosphere controlled
Storage conditions: time, temperature, humidity, atmosphere, handling, costs
Distribution limits: shelf life; protection from contamination, breakage, deterioration;
available transport and storage; timing of transport; costs
Marketing
Market channel: product flow through market channel, people and organisations (retail
outlets, wholesalers, agents, ingredient suppliers)
Market channel requirements: size, weight, availability, price, display and information
Promotion: media advertising, public relations, in-store promotions, free samples,
competitions
Promotion needs: create awareness, encourage to buy, education, creating a product
image
Pricing: customers’ product value, costs, price range, price discounts, competitive pricing
Marketing limits: channel availability, channel controls, competitive actions, promotion
availability and costs, customer needs and attitudes, legal controls on marketing.
The knowledge base for product development 167
4.3.2 Knowledge of the environment
Knowledge of the social, cultural, physical, economic and political environ-
ments is very important in product development, but is a massive task even in
the largest companies who can have staff devoting their time to it. Fortunately
many of the social and cultural changes are slow moving so there is time to
predict where they are going. But of course political changes can be quite fast,
especially where revolutions occur. Where does information come from –
people, media, magazines, reports, journals and the Internet? How are we to
convert it to useful knowledge in product development?
Information in many of these environmental changes does spread around the
world quickly because of modern communication, but often it is in the
‘communication bites’ beloved of the media, which do not tell the whole story
and in some cases distort the information. The large companies have staff placed
in close proximity to parliaments and politicians so that they are not only
Think break
1. For the product design and process development of peanut butter slices in a
vacuum pack, similar to cheese slices, decide on the knowledge needed for
product qualities, raw materials, processing and packaging. How much of this
knowledge is already available, and what would need to be created in the
product development project?
2. Three different varieties of mangoes have been selected for export to Japan
from Thailand (see Section 7.2). What knowledge would be needed for
packaging, distributing and marketing in Japan? How would you conduct the
development to either find or create this knowledge?
3. Packaging is an area where there has to be close collaboration of food
manufacturer and packaging company. It is recognised that for the food
manufacturer (Belcher, 1999):
(a) purchasing wants easily exchangeable packaging that can be quickly
delivered by several companies,
(b) marketing wants a package that is a communication vehicle and that can
convey an image,
(c) legal department wants a package that definitely protects the product from
contamination, and is deemed a safe product for the consumer so as not to
incur any liability on the company,
(d) the food technologist is interested in the package for what it can do to
protect the product quality, safety and can enhance the new technologies
that are being employed.
Discuss how the packaging company can deliver this wide variety of knowledge to
the manufacturer and create new knowledge with the manufacturer.
168 Food product development
actively looking for information but are indeed influencing the trends. But this is
often a long way from the person managing product development on a daily
basis, so one can find two opposing directions in the same company. For
example, the product developer with close customer and retailer relationships in
Europe may be designing natural, organic products, while the political lobbying
staff may be trying to influence politicians to accept genetic engineering.
There are many economic reports and physical climatic reports around the
world; it is not difficult to find information of possible increases in economic
status of peoples, which will lead to a different food choice, and on effect of
climate change on food choice – less hot soup and more ice cream. Economic
change is now occurring in China and it is not difficult for the food companies to
predict the food changes and the possible products that can be developed for this
market. There are many predictions of climate changes, which may not be
precisely reliable on timing, but still give the direction of change.
So how is this information on environmental changes developed into knowl-
edge in product development? Many of the overall changes are incorporated in
developing the business strategy, innovation strategy and therefore the product
development strategy. So these overall changes are incorporated into the product
development planning. But there are specific effects on the product development
project and these must be carefully noted in planning the important decisions at
each stage, so that the team can find the knowledge to meet these decisions.
There need to be people in product development teams who are outward-looking
and aware of what is happening in the environment and have the ability to bring
this into the product development programme and projects.
4.3.3 Sources of knowledge
In product development, there is a continuous development of knowledge:
past knowledge C33 present knowledge C33 future knowledge
There is recognition of the past knowledge which needs to be kept either in a
company’s memory or in its databases – it is unrewarding to keep ‘re-inventing
the wheel’. One must not cling to the old knowledge as sacrosanct, but as a
building base for the present and the future. At the beginning of the product
development project, one is judging the knowledge available at present and
assessing this against the knowledge required throughout the project.
Knowledge available
Knowledge required Knowledge to be created
The knowledge already inside the company is the first type to consider.
Basically this is inside the heads of individuals, but together it becomes the total
company knowledge if the knowledge is shared. In every company, there are
C37C38
The knowledge base for product development 169
individuals and groups who may not share knowledge easily so that a system has
to be set up to ensure sharing of the combined company knowledge for a project.
In incremental product development, as much as 90% of the knowledge required
is already available inside the company if there is knowledge sharing. In product
innovation, the present knowledge may be as little as 40% of the knowledge
required – if any less, then warning bells should sound for the project.
Knowledge can be created from information inside the company – in the files,
databases, library and information system. An important information source
within the company is staff personal records; people often record detailed
information, which is condensed in reports or even not reported. Some informa-
tion may not have been significant in one project, but is in a later project. Some
companies try to collect this into a central computer system, but even then it
may be difficult to retrieve the information without the individual’s inter-
pretation of it. Within the company it is always difficult to balance the costs and
usefulness of stored information. Between the two extremes of ‘wiping the slate
clean’ and ‘paralysis by information and analysis’, there is a balance for every
company that depends on the knowledge level of their staff and the costs of
storing information. One persistent problem is to ensure systems are in place to
record all significant data and events.
The company’s capabilities or expertise can be described as a combination of
the company knowledge, the company skills and the availability and relevance
of the company information, as shown in Fig. 4.6. The collective body of
P is personal knowledge, in people’s heads; and personal skills.
Fig. 4.6 Knowledge and information in the company.
170 Food product development
company knowledge (core memory) plus the company’s skills (core compe-
tencies), plus the information system within the company combine to form the
company’s core capabilities. The knowledge can be the separate knowledge of
people (P), but much more important is interactive knowledge between people
(P C36 P C36 P C36 P). In the case of company skills it is an additive effect of
individual skills (P + P + P + P); in the company, people always have to work
together and must not work separately. The information system may be separate
sources or combined on a network in an information system.
Fleck (1998) identified expertise as knowledge (philosophy, technical
specialities), power (sociology) and tradability (economics). Power is part of the
organisational structure, within the company but also in professional and other
organisations, and knowledge is seen as embodying social relations within which
power is mediated and reproduced. There is no question that power in the company
can influence the direction of knowledge in product development, and also the
resources for that knowledge, whether the power is held in finance, marketing,
production or top management. Tradability is determining if a particular
knowledge is better at carrying out a task than a competing knowledge. This is
often an argument in industry against using more complex knowledge – will the
product development be more efficient and effective or just more costly? Power
and tradability emphasise that expertise is not ‘pure’ in a company; the selection of
knowledge is influenced by the people with and without power inside and outside
the company, and its marketability both internally and externally. Technological
knowledge is often influenced by both of these factors. Communication is also
important for the company’s capabilities (Court, 1997), and this has been shown in
Fig. 4.6 by interrelating the people P C36 P C36 P, but individuals, P, have also been
shown who are in the company’s capabilities but are not interrelating.
It is important to differentiate between information and knowledge, although
there are certainly grey areas where they mix. One can consider them as
weighted:
Data C136 d
Information C136 d C2 c C136 data C2 content
Knowledge C136 d C2 c C2 e C136 information x experience
Databases have been shown as a particular type of information. There is a grey
area between databases and information, but data are usually considered the raw
facts, information is data that have been worked on to give a meaning that can be
understood (Court, 1997). Usually databases are the lists of product sales figures
or the demographic information on population. There needs to be recognition
that information only becomes active knowledge in product development if it is
linked either with past experience or experience in the present PD project.
Sources external to the company are important for knowledge not available
in the company. Depending on the state of the company’s core capabilities, it is
important that necessary additional knowledge and skills are transferred from
external sources to the company. In particular the knowledge of customers and
suppliers provides important sources, where there is close contact between the
The knowledge base for product development 171
company and the outside sources of knowledge. There is knowledge and
information outside the company that can be used to fill the gaps in the
knowledge for specific projects. This is illustrated in Fig. 4.7.
The place of consultants in the knowledge/information spectrum is varied;
there can certainly be skills transferred, but unless the consultant is intertwined
in the company, only information can be transferred and not knowledge. This is
similar for universities and research institutes; skills and information can be
transferred, but knowledge can only be directly used if it is relevant specifically
to the company. Company staff and company management need to go outside
the company to identify new tacit knowledge from consumers, customers, or
scientific and technological centres. Many ideas can come from outside the
company but there needs to be the internal tacit knowledge to recognise them
and relate them to the company product development (Lenzner and Johnson,
1997). It is not enough to read the information coming into the company, it may
be out of date and not easily related to the company, and so its effective
incorporation has to be organised and ensured.
4.3.4 Sources of information
The sources of information are both internal and external to the company. They
can be grouped as tacit, mix of tacit and explicit, and explicit sources.
? Tacit – company staff, personal experience.
? Mix of tacit and explicit – business consultants, customers, exhibitions/trade
material/conferences, family and friends, government agencies, other
companies and competitors, suppliers/sales representatives, trade associa-
tions/professional bodies.
? Explicit sources – in-house databases/reports, information brokers, libraries,
media, on-line sources, patent information, trade journals.
In the Italian industry, Evangelista (1999) showed that for technological
information, the internal departments were the most important channels for
information into the manufacturing companies as shown in Table 4.4. Internal
sources were not as important in the service companies as in manufacturing.
Among the external sources for information, clients, customers, suppliers of
equipment, materials and components were the most common sources.
Information flowed from both the upstream and downstream user/supplier
interactions. Consultants were more important in the service industries than in
the manufacturing companies. Other sources – universities and higher educa-
tional institutes, private research institutes, public research institutes, agencies
for technological transfer, patents, licences and other external sources – were
very important to less than 5% of the companies.
Campbell (1999) also found in New Zealand that customers and company
staff were the important and most used sources for information. The heavily
used sources were personal experience, customers, company staff and in-house
sources; the moderately used sources were exhibitions/conferences, other
172 Food product development
Fig. 4.7 Knowledge and information from outside the company.
companies, suppliers and trade journals. Campbell also enquired if the sources
were tacit or explicit. Of the heavily used sources, personal experience and
company staff were tacit, customers were tacit and explicit, in-house sources
were explicit. The moderately used sources, which were external to the
company, were a mixture of tacit and explicit knowledge. Most of the
infrequently used sources were explicit, but some professional bodies, business
consultants and government agencies provided a tacit component.
Campbell found that highly innovative companies used information more
than the least innovative companies, as shown in Table 4.5. The sources where
there was no real difference between the three groups were professional bodies,
media, trade journals, information brokers and in-house sources; apart from
trade journals and in-house sources, these were infrequently used. Overall the
highly innovative companies used a greater range of information sources in
relation to their product development activities. The highly innovative and
moderately innovative companies made use of both formal and informal
acquisition methods, the least innovative companies were more likely to gather
information informally. The moderately innovative companies tended to use
more formal information acquisition methods than the highly innovative
companies, both internally and externally.
In looking at the stages in product development, Campbell found differences
between the three stages: pre-development analysis, product design and testing,
product commercialisation as shown in Table 4.6. There was a surprisingly low use
of external information sources. In the pre-development stage, only personal
experience for initial screening, and customers for preliminary market analysis,
were used by over 80% of the companies. Customers in initial screening and
detailed market research, and personal experience in financial feasibility, were
Table 4.4 Sources of technological information in manufacturing and services
Innovating firms
for which the source is very important
Manufacturing Services
Sources % of total (rank) % of total (rank)
Internal sources 63 (1) 37 (1)
(Production/delivery, R&D,
marketing department)
External sources
Clients or customers 44 (2) 34 (2)
Suppliers of equipment and components 36 (3) 30 (3)
Fairs and exhibitions 33 (4) 14 (7)
Competitors 23 (5) 21 (5)
Consultancy firms 15 (6) 27 (4)
Conferences, seminars, spec. journals, etc. 13 (7) 17 (6)
Source: From Evangelista, 1999, by permission of Rinaldo Evangelista and Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
174 Food product development
used by over 70% of the companies. In product design and testing, only personal
experience in prototype design and detailed design, company staff in trial
production, and customers in test marketing, were used by over 70% of the
companies. In product commercialisation, the use of information was the lowest of
the three stages. Only company staff and customers in production start-up, and
customers in market launch, were used by over 70% of the companies. Overall in
product development, highly tacit information transfer was used. Only customers’
Table 4.5 Information usage for product development
Companies
Highly Moderately Least
innovative innovative innovative
Source Use Importance Use Importance Use Importance
Customers 4.3* 4.7
C121
3.7 4.9 3.9 4.3
Company staff 4.0 4.2 3.5 4.1 3.3 3.5
Suppliers 3.5 3.6 2.5 3.3 2.5 3.0
Exhibitions/ 3.3 3.6 3.0 3.5 2.4 2.6
conferences
Other companies 3.2 3.8 3.2 3.7 2.2 2.5
Business consultants 2.6 2.5 2.5 3.0 1.7 2.6
Family and friends 2.4 2.4 2.0 2.4 1.9 2.2
Libraries 2.0 2.2 2.3 2.8 1.7 2.1
Govt agencies 1.9 2.5 1.9 3.1 1.5 2.2
Patent information 1.8 2.1 2.6 3.6 1.9 2.0
* Use scale 1 C136 not at all to 5 C136 all the time
C121
Importance scale 1 C136 not important to 5 C136 vitally important.
Source: From Campbell, 1999.
Table 4.6 Information sources in three stages of product development
Percentage of companies
Sources Pre-development Product design Product
analysis and testing commercialisation
Personal experience 64 57 44
Customers 57 46 42
Company staff 44 57 48
In-house sources 43 38 32
Other companies 30 ––
Suppliers 28 24 –
Business consultants 19
Exhibition/conference ––17
Source: From Campbell, 1999.
The knowledge base for product development 175
information incorporated an explicit content. New Zealand companies are small by
international standards, so some of these uses of information may not be true for
large multinational companies. But in product development, there does appear to
be a strong reliance on tacit information and less on explicit information.
4.4 Tacit knowledge in product development
Tacit knowledge is the opposite of explicit knowledge, which is knowledge that can
be expressed in words or numbers, in a formal, systematic language, and easily
stored and communicated. Tacit knowledge is much more difficult to define
(Madhaven and Grover, 1998). It is essentially personal knowledge and therefore is
communicated person to person or within a group of people (Nonaka et al., 1996).
Tacit knowledge in the product development team and the company is a combination
and reinforcement of the many individuals’ tacit knowledge caused by their
interactions. Madhaven and Grover (1998) called this embedded knowledge in
product development. Evangelista (1999) combined the tacit and explicit knowledge
in the group and called it disembodied technology. The results of using disembodied
knowledge is embodied knowledge, in this case the product and the other outcomes
of the product development. So knowledge is brought into the product development
project, knowledge is generated as the project progresses, and finally the knowledge
passes from the project as a new product, production specifications, marketing
strategy, financial predictions. This knowledge is not only used in the production
and marketing of the product, but can be stored for future projects – either as tacit
knowledge in people’s heads or preferably stored as an explicit knowledge base.
Often tacit knowledge is specific to a context or area; for example some product
developers have tacit knowledge of consumers, products and processes, but may
have no tacit knowledge of product testing techniques or of process reactions and
would need to rely on explicit knowledge in books and manuals. An important tacit
Think break
1. List the information sources used by your company in product development.
Which sources give you vital information, useful information, interesting
information, useless information? Would you drop some of these information
sources? Do you need to include other information sources?
2. Because of the increasing volume of information, companies have set up
systems based on information technology to receive, store and distribute
information to the various functional departments, R&D, engineering and product
development (Graef, 1998). Describe the important knowledge areas to be
included in an information system for product development. What are the
important factors to be considered in building an information system as a basis
for effective and efficient product development?
176 Food product development
knowledge is the understanding of the defining company situation: where the
company is, what it wants to achieve and what are its restrictions/limits on product
development, and how does it want to achieve product success.
4.4.1 Individual knowledge in product development
In the product development project, the team therefore is relying on its tacit
knowledge augmented with explicit knowledge to provide the required
knowledge for the project. Sometimes the project starts with only the tacit
knowledge of the team members and further knowledge is generated in the
project. This often happens in the small company which lacks information
sources, but the larger companies can also do this if there is a perceived need for
a fast start to development. Under these circumstances, product success is very
dependent on the tacit knowledge and the creative ability of individuals.
Product development is dependent on the dynamics of people and their networks.
The individual in product development has knowledge developed from education
and experience, but they are also involved in knowledge networks that may be in
professional organisations, industry groups, company staff, customers and suppliers.
So the individual is dynamically exchanging knowledge while also building up their
own knowledge base. Very often, the relevant knowledge for the product
development project is general knowledge in this particular group or even in a
wider society (Senker, 1998), and only the 10–20% created is really new knowledge.
Companies who have great secrecy barriers are sometimes losing this general
knowledge and are making knowledge creation more difficult for themselves.
Very often there are individuals in companies who because of their strong
connections with external sources are able to gather information that is both
relevant and up to date. They may be thought of as information gatekeepers.
With their understanding of internal needs and communication systems, they can
translate this information into a form that is useful to the organisation
(MacDonald and William, 1993). These information gatekeepers can be very
useful in product development. Information gatekeepers can also be important
within the company, transferring information between groups and translating the
information into knowledge for the project.
It is important that the company supports creative individuals, and also
provides them with the environment to create knowledge. Creative people are
not always the easiest to manage in the traditional power-down method and
organisational structure. In some cultures such as in Scandinavia, they are given
an important status and given the resources to work together. Scandinavians
often wonder why, in American and Canadian research to improve product
development, communication is identified as difficult to achieve; they
communicate all the time!
Every person in the company can contribute tacit knowledge to product
development. Product development is re-creating the company, in a small way
or even dramatically, therefore all staff are involved, as also are the customers. It
is important in recruiting not to have closed minds, for example recruiting only
The knowledge base for product development 177
from certain universities; the company will have too many people with the same
way of thinking and not be able to create and tap the necessary new knowledge.
A variety of knowledge, skills and motivations are required. And it needs to be
combined with experience. There is a need to have a combination of people who
have built up their experience in the company and others who have outside
experience in the food industry or even in another industry. People with tacit
knowledge from other companies will bring new tacit knowledge into the
company, which can revitalise the tacit knowledge in the company.
4.4.2 Using tacit and explicit knowledge in product development
Sometimes tacit knowledge has been defined as knowledge from experience that
cannot be explained, but this is not usually true in product development except for
very simplistic product design. Product development is essentially problem solving,
and therefore basic principles are often combined with the results of experience to
find solutions. But essentially product development is a defined process, which can
be written down in explicit knowledge; as can many of the activities, techniques and
decision making. The tacit knowledge is often used to choose the activities and
maybe the techniques that can give the necessary outcomes for the decision making.
The skills for the techniques are often explicit, being taught and written down in
manuals and textbooks. But they may not rely on a thorough understanding of the
scientific principles involved, and some would say that they are therefore tacit
knowledge. In the food industry, this is a significant point for discussion. The tacit
knowledge of the craftsman who could feel bread dough and say it was at optimum
fermentation, led to the tacit knowledge of the technician who tests the dough with
an empirical instrument that states it is correct for baking. But is the explicit
knowledge on bread dough based on scientific principles? In some ways the
consumer and market researchers are further advanced as they are using explicit
consumer knowledge based on social science research methods. It is based on
statistical analysis and not mathematical models, but is explicit for a certain
population. It is the change from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge, which is
important for the future – how far is it necessary to make the change so as to have
knowledge capabilities for product development in the future?
Although there is written information on problem solving, this is really one
area where tacit knowledge is important. In academic education this tacit
knowledge is difficult to achieve, because there is often neither the time nor the
resources to allow students to develop problem-solving skills under guidance from
people with a great deal of tacit knowledge. Very often one can see the process
design and product development projects being dropped or never included in food
technology courses. These are two of the areas where problem solving can be
taught by experience and advice. Indeed in companies, the acquisition of tacit
knowledge to support innovation is a purposive activity of much industrial
development, design and testing of prototypes and pilot plant (Senker, 1998). This
is illustrated in Fig. 4.8 showing how a barrier that stops an idea moving directly
to an innovative product may be overcome by intermediate steps such as making
178 Food product development
up prototypes and testing them (if needed, with internal recycling), and so
establishing sufficient knowledge for implementation of that innovation. When
this has been done once or twice new tacit knowledge is created which may enable
some or all of the intermediate steps to be cut out in broadly similar innovations.
Technological change has been tacit knowledge-based because it is so much
dependent on the knowledge within the company. Especially in incremental
changes, ‘doing’ mostly creates the minor improvements – it is easier to make
up the formulations and see if they work than look up scientific information on
the processing changes. Innovations are more often based on scientific
knowledge, especially in large companies. But they have to be brought into
product successes by using the tacit knowledge in combining the product and
production, and the product and the consumer. In emerging technologies –
biotechnology, advanced engineering ceramics and parallel processing – the
knowledge on particular fields is from education and literature, but the tacit
knowledge developed in the company, which builds on the formal knowledge, is
essential for developing the innovation (Senker, 1998).
The food system uses knowledge for product development in the different
parts of the system as shown in Fig. 4.9. In the early stages, it is animal, fish and
plant growing or catching, physiology, effects of feeding, nutritional value,
sensory properties, uses; this is followed by preservation, cleaning, extraction,
treating and packaging. As already noted, the later stages of the food industry
divide into two parts – the food processors making food ingredients, which are
scale-intensive companies that produce a high proportion of their own process
Fig. 4.8 Experience (tacit knowledge) building.
Fig. 4.9 Technological knowledge areas in food production, raw materials.
The knowledge base for product development 179
technology, and the food manufacturers whose product development is largely
directed by their ingredient suppliers (Senker, 1998). The food manufacturing
companies continue to use tacit knowledge and skills because this is the only
way they can cope with the complexity of food systems using the scientific and
technological skills that are available to them. The food processors have
acquired the scientific and engineering skills of process engineering and are
therefore able to use a greater amount of explicit knowledge. But even they are
still using tacit knowledge to analyse and plan their product development. Some
of the knowledge and skills in the total food system is shown in Fig. 4.9.
In studying engineering designers’ use of knowledge and memory in new
product development, Court (1997) found that the most prominently accessed
information sources were those based upon locally stored information. The
engineering designer’s personal experience and knowledge, and in particular
memory, were constantly used. In many cases, the designer relied solely on
recalling items of information and data from their memory rather than spending a
large amount of time searching for it. One-third of information accesses were based
on memory usage, with higher figures for many individuals. Knowledge formed
within memory is of great importance to the engineering designer.
It is important that in product development people not only have skills and
knowledge in specific areas but also, through experience, the knowledge and
skills to integrate other areas into their particular activities in product
development. Someone may be a product designer but they need to be able to
integrate both the consumer needs and production needs into their design.
People in the product development team also need to have knowledge of the
complete product development process and in particular the decisions to be
made and the outcomes needed both from their activities and from the activities
of the team as whole. There needs to be a shared understanding of the project
and its problems on which the team is working, including a shared common
language, and a shared organisational memory. The shared memory can be used
to solve the present problems, and will affect the outcomes. But of course the
whole team can become rather conservative if it has been together for a number
of projects and can see only one way to solve problems. Their effectiveness is
then reduced. This is important – teams improve with being together but if they
are together too long then their product development becomes less effective. On
the other hand, one should not keep changing teams too often, as they do not
learn to combine their knowledge and develop group knowledge.
The benefits of shared models of the PD Process and the activities in it are
true for all projects. The choice of members of a team and its organisation does
depend on the level of innovation of the product. For radical innovation there is
a greater need for creativity and often for specialist skills, but there is always a
need for a wider knowledge of the different activities in product development.
The aims of effectiveness and efficiency are always to be remembered:
? Effectiveness in a product development team relates to the degree to which
the product meets the targeted need of the customer.
180 Food product development
? Efficiency is defined as a measure of the resources (including time) used for
a given output, often compared with some target or ideal (Madhaven and
Grover, 1998).
4.4.3 Changing tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge
Companies are increasingly trying to change the tacit knowledge held in
people’s heads into recorded or codified knowledge so that this knowledge is
less vulnerable and is not lost to the company. This is made possible by the
increasing scientific and technological knowledge in the food industry but also
by the availability of simple, cheap computer systems such as expert systems
linked into internal and external networks. Protection of intellectual knowledge
has also pushed this trend; although in the food industry it is often difficult to
receive patent protection except for equipment and agricultural plants, the
advent of new types of foods in the future, such as nutriceuticals, could lead to
more patenting. The other push to more recording of the tacit information was
the introduction of quality assurance and management systems, which included
careful recording of processes, products and systems.
There is an increasing amount of scientific literature in food science, which
could be the basis for innovation. At the present time, it appears extremely
varied and much of it is without the focus needed to build it into a new
technology, but this explicit knowledge will gradually filter, often via tacit
knowledge, into the food industry. As the present food science is adopted into
the industry, we can expect greater support for food research and hopefully rapid
advancement in food product and processing knowledge. It is a rather chicken-
and-egg situation. With knowledge, models of food processes will be accessible
that can be used to develop new processes as well as controlling the present
processes.
Knowledge can be embodied in theories, equipment use, people and
organisations (Fleck, 1998), as shown in Table 4.7. It is useful to recognise
these different types of knowledge in a product development team, both the
amount of each embodied in the team and also the amount of each needed in a
specific project. In the innovation using new knowledge there is often formal
knowledge, which has come from research, which has to be developed to fit with
Think break
1. List your tacit knowledge related to product development at the beginning of
your working in product development, and then after every five years.
2. What are the most notable areas where your tacit knowledge has grown?
3. How would you help a young person coming into your product development
group to develop their tacit knowledge? In which product development areas do
you think they most need to develop tacit knowledge for efficient and effective
product development?
The knowledge base for product development 181
the other types of knowledge which are all fundamental to product development.
The informal knowledge is important in product idea generation. Uniting the
various types of knowledge with their contexts is one of the important decisions
in product development. The instrumentalities, that is equipment knowledge, are
important in building up both product testing and process development; but the
actual equipment knowledge depends on the situation – equipment available and
the expertise of the people to use it. Equipment knowledge also depends on the
place of processing and testing – the laboratory or the factory floor, the small
company or the large company.
Knowledge can also be divided (Court, 1997) into:
? general knowledge, gained through everyday experiences and general
education;
? domain-specific knowledge gained through study and experience within the
specific domain that the designer works in;
? procedural knowledge: gained from experience of how to undertake one’s
task within the enterprise concerned.
Knowledge in product development is needed for the design of the product,
production and marketing, but is also needed on the PD Process. There is a
standard framework for the PD Process, and the company needs to define the
decisions to be made at specific stages. These actually do not differ very much
from project to project, but the outcomes needed may vary and the activities
vary with the domain in which the product developers are working. The
techniques used will vary according to the situations and the milieux.
The knowledge-based innovation usually has the longest lead time of all
product development, not only the time span between the emergence of the new
knowledge from research but also on long periods before the new technology
turns into products, processes and services in the marketplace (Drucker, 1985). It
also is usually based on several different kinds of knowledge, which have to be
Table 4.7 Components and contexts of knowledge
Key components of knowledge
Formal knowledge: embodied in codified theories
Instrumentalities: embodied in tool, equipment use
Informal knowledge: embodied in verbal interaction
Contingent knowledge: embodied in a specific context
Tacit knowledge: embodied in people
Meta-knowledge: embodied in the organisation
Contexts of knowledge
Domains: the areas to which the particular expertise applies
Situations: assemblage of components, people, domains, etc., at any particular time
Milieux: the immediate environments in which expertise is exercised
Source: After Fleck, 1998.
182 Food product development
integrated to produce the new technology and the new product. This is why early
products sometimes fail, because the product developers may have some of the
knowledge but not enough, for example they may know the scientific knowledge
but do not have adequate knowledge of consumer behaviour. Food irradiation is
an extreme case of this: there was a great deal of scientific and technological
research, before anyone thought about the consumer reactions. In the case of
microwave ovens, the food industry had done little research on the effects of
microwave heating on food ingredients and food, and given little thought to
educating the consumers on how to use microwave ovens with their products. It
took some time before the food industry caught up with the innovation from
another industry. Other examples of lack of holistic knowledge are early freeze-
dried foods, and an early attempt to provide unsaturated fats in the meat from
ruminant animals, in particular lamb, to give ‘healthier’ meat. Early freeze-dried
products were specific meats, vegetables and fruit, and only when they were
incorporated and marketed as convenience meals did they become accepted. The
lamb with higher unsaturated fats had health advantages, but tasted like pork and
was not acceptable. So it is a case of having all the knowledge threads at the
right time, and the milieu of the company that will take the risk, and the domain
with all the features to support the knowledge including cost structures.
4.5 Creating knowledge in product development
Creating knowledge is an integral part of product development, and the ability of
the individual and the group to create knowledge is important for both effective
and efficient product development.
Think break
In changing tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge, two important storage systems for
knowledge and information in the company are the company library and the
computerised information technology system.
1. Compare the two systems, listing the advantages and disadvantages of libraries
and information technology systems for storing knowledge collected during
product development projects.
2. Is it more useful for future projects to have a project’s knowledge on a CD in the
library than in the information technology system?
3. One of the problems in knowledge/information storage is the age of the material.
For how many years should project material be stored? Should resources be
made to collect together the information/knowledge from several projects before
this time limit?
4. Design a knowledge/information system that will suit your company’s need for
internal knowledge/information in product development projects.
The knowledge base for product development 183
4.5.1 Creating knowledge in the company
Nonaka et al. (1996) suggested that knowledge is created in organisations by a
process that amplifies the knowledge created by individuals and crystallises it as
part of the knowledge system of the organisation. It is hoped that it would not
crystallise into a museum piece but act as a dynamic force to move the
knowledge system to both encompass wider multidisciplinary knowledge and
more detailed explicit knowledge of the present technology. Knowledge can be
created within the product development team, the company, and by interaction
with the external environment between individuals and groups. This interaction
can be between tacit and explicit knowledge, and can cause conversion of
knowledge as shown in Table 4.8.
The whole development from the product description to the product design
specifications is a conversion of the tacit knowledge of consumers, market
researchers and designers, by the development team to an explicit knowledge at a
Table 4.8 Knowledge conversion
Knowledge conversion Place in product development People, group
Tacit to tacit Brainstorming, focus groups, Consumer/designer
discussion, concepts comparison Consumer/market
researcher
Designer/market
researcher/process
developer
Tacit to explicit Product concept creation, Consumer/designer
product design specifications, Designer/process
modelling, developer
feasibility reports, Development team/
evaluation reports, functional depts/
production plan, management
market strategy
Explicit to explicit Business strategy/product Management/
development strategy, product developers
unit operations/new Engineers/
process, developers
measures/testing techniques Quality assurance/
designer/developer
Explicit to tacit Raw material specifications/ Supplier/developer
use in product,
basic science/technology, Researcher/developer
reported experience/new problem, Files/developer
product problem/research for Consumer/
solution, product development designer/developer
project report/tacit model Reports/product
for organising future projects development manager
184 Food product development
certain level. The design of the product and the process development then converts
this often tacit description to a total product and process that can be described
explicitly. Modelling is also a way of taking a tacit description of the product into
an explicit description – the model can be verbal, physical, computer-based, or
indeed mathematical. Explicit knowledge is exchanged in manuals, reports, papers,
expert systems. Product design and production specifications, processing and
quality assurance manuals, are commonly used for explicit knowledge transfers. It
is important that the business, innovation and project development strategies, PD
programmes and the aims and plans for individual projects are explicitly recorded
for guidance of product development. Marketing can also be using point-of-sales
data to develop their launch plan. The passing from stage to stage is often explicit
going to explicit; for example the details of the product prototype going to the
product specifications in production. It is important that this explicit knowledge is
in a form that can be changed to tacit knowledge in a future project, projecting it
with safety and confidence into a new area.
Organisational knowledge creation is a continuous and dynamic interaction
between tacit and explicit knowledge (Nonaka et al., 1996), and between
individuals and groups and also the company as a whole as shown in Fig. 4.10. In
product development, the product development strategy develops from the
business strategy, gradually increasing the tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge,
until individuals form from this an explicit product strategy. Note that even here is
tacit knowledge, which has to be communicated to the product development team.
Creating a product strategy involves a community of interacting individuals with
different knowledge and skills. They have started with the explicit knowledge in
the business strategy, and with group discussions are alternately increasing the
tacit knowledge and building up explicit knowledge. In developing the new
product strategy, there is a need to use not only the traditional analysis and
experience, but also to have the strategic imagination to turn the input into new
strategic scenarios (Ellis, 1999). There is a need to look in new directions, develop
strategies that are innovative, unexpected, original and effective. At least once a
year, board and key executives and selected product developers/designers need to
Fig. 4.10 Interaction of tacit and explicit knowledge in product strategy development.
The knowledge base for product development 185
meet to develop ideas for strategies in what Ellis calls serious play. Then
management needs to build aggregate project plans, and create the development
strategy. To make these activities work, the people charged with their completion
need to be educated in the fundamental principles. They also need to enhance their
knowledge regularly of the organisation’s market position, technologies,
production processes, suppliers and competitors (Clark and Wheelwright, 1993).
This process of knowledge building will be repeated in building up the
product concept and the product design specifications. This time consumers will
be included in the discussion groups with the product development team,
marketing staff and technical staff. Product development teams move through
these patterns of alternating periods of steady progress in knowledge creation,
punctuated by sudden breakthroughs and sometimes changes in direction in the
interacting periods. In creating knowledge, individual and group knowledge is
interchanged, learning from each other, and then the combined knowledge for
the problem is built. The combined knowledge then becomes the company
knowledge in the future (Nonaka et al., 1996).
Some of the important factors in using knowledge in innovation identified in
the 3M company are shown in Box 4.3. All of these factors are related to
knowledge, its communication and the empowerment of staff to use the knowl-
edge. Perhaps the most important is the recognition that product development is a
discipline with its own knowledge base. An important company capability in
product development is having a thorough understanding of the market by
acquiring, disseminating and using market information. But in many companies
there are barriers to gaining market understanding, especially of new markets
Box 4.3 Important factors in innovation
? Vision for product development which is understood and accepted by
management and the product development team, and is also related to the
customer.
? Foresight which predicts the customers’ articulated and unarticulated
needs.
? Stretched goals, setting targets which cause the company to make a
quantum leap.
? Empowerment, selecting the right people and then trust them enough to let
them have the initiative to work on their own.
? Communications, the free exchange of information, staff understanding
that combining and transferring knowledge is as important as the initial
innovation.
? Recognition of the importance of innovation as a discipline in all parts of
the company.
Source: After Ellis, 1999.
186 Food product development
(Adams et al., 1998). In acquiring market information, people focus on either
technology design aspects (here is a new product, do you want it?) or business
aspects (here is a product, what are predictions of sales revenues?). They ignore
product concept development with consumers, identifying target markets and their
needs and wants, because the researchers think these are ambiguous. Dissemi-
nation of market information is hindered because people focus on their own goals,
often departmental instead of the project goals. Cross-functional approaches are
needed to give interactive communication so that the market information is
incorporated in the product design and also in the development of the marketing
strategy. The learning barriers of compartmentalised thinking are overcome by:
? developing common goals that are specific to the product, not to separate
departments;
? clarifying each person’s role in the product innovation activity so that each
knows their part in the larger whole and can help one another;
? learning to appreciate both the contributions from, and the constraints, in the
various departments.
In knowledge use, the effort is to try to overcome the inertia to change. People tend
to proceed as they always have, maintaining the status quo rather than adjusting
actions to capitalise on market learning. Especially with incremental products, it is
assumed that the product is just like the present products and there is no need for
extensive market research; sometimes the research is done but ignored because it
does not fit with preconceived ideas. Managers should enable teams to develop
market data. Managers also must help people to extend the usual routines into new
practices and promote trust between themselves and the team members, and also
within the team. The product developers can make their product familiar to the
manager by providing useful information about the product and its market.
‘Useful’ means that the managers could use the information to follow the
development effort and evaluate the product’s potential.
An important factor in the product development group is connectivity. People
at one time worked in close-knit departments or teams where knowledge would
be shared and exchanged routinely and easily. But today there is the problem of
not only maintaining contact in a large building but maintaining contact
internationally. The product development project team may have no physical
contact and often work for different managers, and they may have never met –
their only contact is by e-mail (Ellis, 1999). It has been shown that trust in team
orientation, that is team members having reciprocal faith in others’ intentions
and behaviour to work towards team goals, rather than narrow, individual or
functional goals or agendas, is essential. As well, trust in team members’
competence is important – that they are competent to handle the complex and
unknown problems that can occur (Madhaven and Grover, 1998). How does one
trust someone through e-mail, far less work cooperatively with them when you
have no idea of their knowledge, skills and personality? There needs to be
recognition of the team and members do need to meet – not just for the one-day
quick meeting but to work together on part of the problem, over several days and
The knowledge base for product development 187
weeks. Team members who are able to interact face-to-face will be more
effective and efficient at creating new knowledge. Management needs to
understand that there are costs in running international product development
teams if they are to be effective and efficient – both in having operational,
interactive networks and also in having joint working times. Fostering an
environment where people share information and knowledge because they know
they will get appropriate credit for it, is an extremely important way to create
intellectual capital within a company and keep it there.
The company needs to create an environment where individuals are
encouraged to preserve and grow their own knowledge, and where they have
the mechanism to develop personal relationships so that they share this
knowledge with others in an informal interaction. They need to be encouraged to
take risks together, and to actively seek knowledge to decrease the risks. The
relationships should not be static but should be moving like a kaleidoscope to
form new patterns of relationships and new groupings but with basically the
same people. People will be lost from product development teams but, if they
are properly run, not too often and not the ones who have high knowledge and/or
the greatest ability in creating knowledge.
4.5.2 Managing creation of knowledge
In the management of product development Madhaven and Grover (1998)
recommended the following:
? Selection of team members with specific knowledge and skills but also an
appreciation of other areas of product development from education and
experience, and with a shared vision of product development and its
procedures. This can be difficult to recognise.
? Selection of the product development manager with multidisciplinary
knowledge from education and experience.
? Using a product development process that is used in all similar projects, but
could have variations for different levels of innovations and types of
products. The decisions and outcomes for each project set out for each stage
as well as the project overall.
? Ensuring that the members of the team are familiar with their intended
activities, both through experienced team members and well-organised
information sources.
? Education of team members on knowledge creation and storage. Also on how
to share knowledge and create knowledge by team knowledge sharing and
cross-functional development.
Development of people, values and culture in the product development team is
very important. Investments in developing knowledge and skills, for
technologies, marketing, consumer research and financial analysis, as well as
the overall discipline of product development, can be made by employing
suitable staff and by educating present staff. As Rouse (1992) said:
188 Food product development
Such investments make sense if the people involved have the aptitudes
and abilities to gain the knowledge and skills, and if they will have op-
portunities to utilise the newly gained knowledge and skill. Without
these prerequisites, well-intended investments in developing people can
result in much frustration and not much else.
It is unfortunately fairly common in the food industry for this to happen, and a
great deal of talent is lost because people are not allowed to use their knowledge
but are tied to a bench doing routine work and not allowed any decision making.
Product development is a risk-taking area and people must be allowed to engage
together in setting the major decisions and outcomes, and then allowed to make the
minor decisions themselves. Again they need to be involved in the discussion and
choice of the major activities, and select their own activities and the techniques to
be used in them. Techniques especially depend on the knowledge and skills of the
people doing the work and if they do not have the major say in choosing the
techniques within the constraints of the outcomes needed and the resource
constraints, they will have less commitment. This is the way for people to develop
their skills and problem-solving abilities. It means that managers have to take risks,
because people may fail with poor outcomes or going over the time for the activity.
But there are always failures and successes and managers have to increase their
own knowledge to reduce chances of failure without reducing people to
automatons. Although there are inevitably penalties for shortcomings and failures,
it is very important that they be commensurate and not too severe. Managers need
to recognise that they need by education to increase their professional knowledge
regularly as well as their management skills. A manager needs knowledge across a
number of technological areas to lead a product development team successfully.
There is also a need for everyone to recognise the culture and values in the
team. If the values are human-centred both in the team and their development of
products, then it matters little if a team is laid-back and casual, or conservatively
dressed and formal. Different societal cultures outside the team, and indeed the
company, affect this aspect of the team. Some cultures encourage communication
at the personal level, others do not; and the problem is to give the team itself the
values that encourage the sharing of knowledge and the working together. Values
have to be realistic reflections of the general society, but they must also encourage
effective and efficient product development. The company’s values do come
down from the Board and the top management, and it may in some cases be
difficult to reconcile these with the values of product development. Apart from
encouraging people to go to another company with values that are more consistent
with product development, what can be done? Company values do change as was
seen in the acceptance of total quality management – quality control was thought
as only for technicians, until quality assurance and then quality management was
developed and sold to management, mostly by outside public relations and
sometimes even by government regulation. Product development has to be
presented as a discipline and as a system that can produce dividends for the
company, and all benefit if both management and the team see it this way.
The knowledge base for product development 189
Technical, organisational and commercial skills and knowledge required for
improving product development are shown in Table 4.9. Three groups of
abilities are essential for creating product development capability: technical, to
achieve product and process integration; organisational, to create the capability
of the team; and commercial, to develop effective product concepts and link
customer requirements and unmet customer needs to the details of product
planning and design (Clark and Wheelwright, 1993).
Some important knowledge seeking and knowledge communication areas in
innovative companies (Souder, 1987) are as follows:
? Ability to sense threats and opportunities in a timely fashion, using
environmental scanning, technological forecasting and competitive analysis.
? Study of risky opportunities, and accurate assessment of the degree of risk in
a project.
? Well-developed project selection systems which effectively communicate the
company’s needs to the idea generators and foster decisiveness in goal-
setting.
Table 4.9 Skill and knowledge requirements for improving development performance
Development Skill/ knowledge requirements
participants
Technical Organisational Commercial
Senior Understand key Recognise importance of Identify strategic
corporate technical changes creating a rapid learning business opportunities
managers organisation, lead and
provide vision and values
Business unit Understand depth Select and educate leaders, Target key customer
general and breadth of champion cross-functional segments, architect
managers technology teams, have career product families and
pathing for staff generations
Team leaders Provide breadth Select, train and lead Champion concept
of capabilities development team, definition,
Comprehend depth recognise importance competitive positioning
requirements of attitudes and secure
functional support
Team members Use new techniques, Integrate cross-functional Operationalise
apply technologies, problem solving, create customer-driven concept
develop new improved development development, refine
technologies procedures concept based on
market feedback
Source: Reprinted with permission of the Free Press, a Division of Simon and Schuster, Inc., from
Managing New Product and Process Development by Kim B. Clark and Steven C. Wheelwright.
Copyright C223 1993 by Kim B. Clark and Steven C. Wheelwright.
190 Food product development
? Interdepartmental debate focused on confronting and resolving conflicts to
produce new ideas and a cooperative climate.
? Individuals who play reciprocal roles – persons who generate ideas, who
champion these ideas and who link these ideas to the existing organisational
goals.
? Organisational structures and climates that foster the development of
collaborative roles.
? Long-term commitment to foster technology.
These qualities combined with a willingness of the company to accept change
are fundamental to successful new product innovations.
Overall it is hard to overemphasise the central importance to product
development of knowledge and its availability to the individuals and to the team
who develop the new products. Some of this knowledge is explicitly written
down and codified, but a great deal still lies with the particular people who do
the creative work and collectively with their groups. From the viewpoint of the
company’s continued operation and success, and avoidance of risk from shifting
employees, efforts are being made to maximise codification of knowledge.
Modern information technology can do much to help with the machinery.
Transfer to the record is also helped by the increasing understanding of the
knowledge scene and of the philosophical issues on which it rests. But in the
long run the knowledge, acquired skills, and powers of analysis and synthesis
lying in the individual will always be the key resource. Without it, creativity will
stumble, if not founder; with it, will come new products and commercial success
relating strongly to the overall skill of the product developers.
Think break
Technological knowledge is organised and structured in ways that reflect application
in product development. The product development team constructs its knowledge
around the subsystems in the stages of the product development process. In this way
its accumulated tacit and explicit knowledge is organised in the most effective
manner for systematic product development and for the activities in each stage
(Gawith, 1999).
1. Describe how your company has identified subsystems in your product
development processes, and built up knowledge in these subsystems.
2. How do the product development team identify a problem, relate it to past
problems and their solutions? Then decide on their method(s) for solving the
present problem.
3. How does the team collect together its tacit and explicit knowledge to select the
activities and techniques for solving the problem?
4. How does the company management ensure that the whole knowledge system
is capable of producing efficient and effective product development?
The knowledge base for product development 191
4.6 References
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development performance: an organisational learning perspective. J.
Product Innovation Management, 15, 403–422.
ALSTON, J.M., PARDEY, P.G. & WALLACE, T.L. (1997) Research policy challenges,
in Government and the Food Industry: Economic and Political Effects of
Conflict and Co-operation, Wallace, L.T. and Schroder, W.R. (Eds)
(Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers).
APFELL-MARGLIN, F. (1996) Introduction: rationality and the world, in
Decolonizing Knowledge: From Development to Dialogue, Apfell-
Marglin, F. and Marglin, S.A. (Eds) (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
BELCHER, J. (1999) Role of packaging in new product development. IFT Product
Development Newsletter, 5.1, 4.
BETZ, F. (1998) Managing Technological Innovation: Competitive Advantage
from Change (New York: John Wiley & Sons).
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