Organised by:
Project Management Technical Division, IEM


SYNOPSIS

Businesses focus on designing new products and selling these products to customers. The company's goal with creating new products involves two parts. The first part consists of finding a product that customers want to pay for; only products that customers purchase produce revenue for the business. The second part consists of beating competitors to market. The first company to offer a product generates the greatest number of repeat customers. New product development (NPD) is a series of steps that includes the conceptualisation, design, development and marketing of newly created or newly rebranded goods or services.

The objective of NPD is to cultivate, maintain and increase a company's market share by satisfying a consumer demand. Not every product will appeal to every customer or client base, so defining the target market for a product is a critical component that must take place early in the NPD process. The process of creating a new product involves nearly every department in the organisation. Many companies create a NPD team. The team includes representatives from the purchasing department, research and development, the production area, accounting and marketing. Quantitative market research should be conducted at all phases of the design process, including before the product or service is conceived, while the product is being designed and after the product has been launched.


BIODATA OF SPEAKER

Dr. Abd. Rahman Abdul Rahim is an Associate Professor at UTM Razak School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, UTM KL and is currently the Director of UTM International, UTM KL. He is also an Associate Lecturer at Meiji University, Tokyo. Prior to joining UTM, he worked with two multi-national corporations in the area of manufacturing. He graduated with B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and B.Sc. in Engineering Management from University of Evansville USA, MSc in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Warwick University and PhD from UTM. He conducted trainings with various companies in the area of Operations and Production Management, Occupational Safety and Health, Emergency Response Plan, Ergonomics, Hazardous Waste, Chemical Safety, Construction Safety, 5-S and Housekeeping, Project Management, Total Productive Maintenance, Poka Yoke, Quality Improvement, Statistical Process Control, ISO 14000, ISO 9000, HACCP, GMP, Production Planning and Control and Method and Time Study. He is also an invited speaker at Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM), NIOSH, Malaysian Institute of Human Resource Management (MIHRM), Incorporated Society of Planters (ISP), Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM), International Business School (IBS) UTM, Chemical Engineering Pilot Plant (CEPP) UTM, and Business and Advanced Technology Center (BATC), Institut Pembangunan Pengurusan Johor (IPPJ), Prestariang, and Pusat Pembangunan Tenaga Industri Johor (Puspatri). He is also an examiner for Safety and Health Officer competency certificate (NIOSH). He has also consulted Syarikat Air Johor (SAJ), Monsanto, World Kitchen and Ciba Vision.