CHARACTERIZATION OF NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT (NPD) MODELS APPLICABLE TO ENHANCE THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE OF THE APPAREL INDUSTRY

The New Product Development (NPD) is one of the emerging trends among the leading apparel industries to gain and maintain the competitive advantage. The consumers are demanding for value-added innovative products at competitive prices. Hence, the apparel producers are faced with immense pressure to produce new products with unique features at competitive prices. Therefore, apparel industrialists are insisted to follow systematic NPD process models and with shorter cycle times. In the study, various NPD process models from a verity of diversified industries were critically evaluated, to examine the appropriateness using relevant Performance Indicators (PI) and characteristics. Such evaluation criteria were characterized to screen the most effective NPD models to reflect the unique features of the product design and development operations of the apparel industry. As concluding remarks, the study shows directions for academics and practitioners to develop result oriented NPD models specifically adoptable for apparel industry.