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FEBRUARY 2021 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 61 Creating an Agile Mindset for NPI in a Manufacturing Environment e biggest challenge non-soware compa- nies face in leveraging an Agile mindset in their NPI process is weighing risk with cost. Because of the high capital cost to launch- ing engineered and manufactured products, it is not feasible to launch Rev A of a product and iterate further on the design over time like it is with Agile soware development. ese iterations might cause rework in the factory or supply chain that can result in a cost-prohibi- tive financial situation that no longer supports the original business case. Companies focused on driving top-line business growth through innovation and NPI can benefit greatly when leveraging the positives of Agile principles into their process of building real products. e easiest area to apply Agile principles to is the concept phase. It is imperative to develop prototypes and proof of concepts that get shared internally and, more importantly, externally with the target consumer. Gaining a full understanding of the end user's emotional response to a future product is paramount during the design engineering development phase. Also, these agile principles can be con- tinued during the design transfer to manufac- turing phase. A practical example is to use 3D print technology to create fixtures, guides, or tooling, which can assist the iterative changes required during the optimization phases of new product introduction. An Agile NPI Framework Implementing an Agile NPI process requires a paradigm shi. Below is a practical guide on setting an Agile NPI framework (Table 1). SMT007 References 1. winshuttle 2. scrumalliance.org/resources/agile-manifesto Alfred Macha is the president of AMT Partners. He can be reached at Alfred@amt-partners.com. To read past columns or contact Macha, click here. Table 1: A practical guide on setting an Agile NPI framework.