Analytic hierarchy prioritisation of new product development activities for electronics manufacturing

Abstract

New product development (NPD) is a managerial process, performed by many activities. The purpose of this paper is to present the application of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to prioritise activities of NPD for manufacturing companies of electronic products. Mathematical modelling was the research method adopted. An electronics cluster located in the southeast region of Brazil was studied. Therefore, 10 of the 42 activities from an NPD model were suggested to be excluded for the electronics companies. These activities have less than 0.5% overall priority. The results from the AHP application were welcomed by the companies' NPD experts.