NPD in manufacturing companies - use of surveys to determine overall status in a country or region, and changes over time

This paper reports on two surveys done in 1999 and 2002 by questionnaires posted to approximately 1300 manufacturing companies in a number of defined industry category groups in a specific geographical region, namely Singapore. This was to determine information about new product development (NPD), and the level of sophistication of it, in companies carrying out mass or batch production, and the changes - if they could be detected -over the 3 years between the two surveys. Besides yielding data on the important subject of the NPD going on in the country´s manufacturing companies, the overall project was also an exercise on the use and effectiveness of those types of surveys. It is argued that such NPD data actually constitute predictive metrics for the region´s future manufacturing business sustainability. Thus, for example, the small but useful increases over the 3 years actually suggested by the work - despite the difficult trading climate of that time - is very encouraging for Singapore. This paper describes the methodology used and comments on its effectiveness as well as outlining some of the main findings of the surveys.