The new product development process in companies and a case study in medical disposable products industry

In today?s highly competitive world where people?s needs and desires are increasing and new and more effective ways of satisfying expectations are being discovered, manufacturing companies also need to develop new solutions to meet increasing expectations of their customers. Developing new products is one of the most common ways of providing new solutions to customers? current and potential needs, wants, and problems.The objective of this study was to analyze the new product development process in general and to investigate an application of a company in Turkish Medical Devices Industry. The study mainly consists of two parts. In the first part, the literature on the new product development process was reviewed and the process was identified with its major aspects. In the second part of the study, an application from the Turkish Medical Devices Sector was examined.As mentioned in the first part of the study, collecting new product development ideas, filtering the ideas, trading analysis, concept development, market testing, and commercialization are primary stages of new product development. The application in the medical devices sector in Turkey provided evidence that almost all of the stages of new product development process were applicable in Turkish companies, but new product development ideas are widely based on efforts to imitate or benchmark successful products. It was recommended that Turkish medical companies should reserve more resources and more efforts for new product development process and the state should support these efforts by providing financial aids and consultancy services.Key Words: New Products in Companies, New Product Development Processes, Turkish Medical Disposable Products Sector, New Product Testing, Introduction of New Product.