• 2009 February: Doing More with Less
• 2008 August: Developing Products with Zero Risk
• 2008 April: Making Knowledge Flow
• 2008 January: Change and Making It Stick
• 2007 August: LEAN Product Development: What’s in a Name?
• 2007 November: Do You Design Products by Wishful Thinking or by Fear???
• 2007 June: Multi-Tasking – Human Nature or Human Weakness?
• 2007 April: Portfolio Management - Where is the Value?
• 2007 February: Critical Chain Project Management - Hype or Reality?

Over the years, mc²solutions has added to the body of knowledge in the area of managing new product development projects and operations. The following articles and papers have "stood the test of time" and are offered to you as free downloads from mc²solutions:

Can we just stop calling it “Lean” Product Development?, PDMA Visions, March 2008. While “Lean” is certainly a hot buzzword and a great marketing tool for service providers, it may be extremely misleading in terms of describing the next phase of continuous improvement in product development practices that many companies are beginning to pursue. In this article, Gene Kania and some colleagues share how the “creation of useable knowledge” is at the heart of making a product development organization “Lean”.

Supply and Demand, ASME Mechanical Engineering magazine, February 2006. Capacity planning is vital to the health and success of any business operation. In manufacturing, this is a given. In product development, this is often over looked. This article introduces a simple, effective approach to resource management based on the immutable laws of supply and demand.

Resource Management: Where Enterprise Project Management Systems Fail, PDMA Visions, April 2006. As product development organizations rush to board the enterprise project management bandwagon, they dream of reaching the Holy Grail: operational excellence and business growth. But what more and more companies have found recently is that they are in for a rough ride that typically does not reach its promised destination. This article will explore why enterprise project management systems have failed to deliver portfolio achievability through effective resource planning and management. The Motorola case study is typical of what many companies are experiencing in this mission critical area of product development operations.

Don’t Forget the Soft-Side of Project Planning, PDMA Visions, April 2003. This article reminds us that the real power in product development planning and execution lies in paying close attention to the soft-side of project planning. While the hard-side of project planning focuses on schedule and dates, the soft-side of project planning focuses on team-building through obtaining buy-in around a shared goal.

Pipeline Management: A Theory of Constraints Approach, PDMA Visions, January 2002. This article introduces two new product development measurements - the Pipeline Impedance Index and the Constraints Summary Chart - which provide management with a powerful means of managing their product development constraints in real time. This directly supports the ultimate goal of product development - maximizing throughput.