Using the analytic hierarchy process in new product screening

The initial screening of a new product idea is critically important. Risky projects (i.e., those with high probabilities of failure) need to be elimin ated early before significant investments are made and opportunity costs in curred. Unfortunately, previous research suggests that it is often difficul t for managers to "kill" new product development projects once they have be gun. Furthermore, recent studies (including some centering on PDMA members) suggest there is much room for improving new product screening, because th is decision often is taken informally or unsystematically. Whereas tools su ch as Cooper's NewProd software are available to aid in the screening decis ion, management science decision support models for screening are not used frequently. In the present study, the authors illustrate the use of the Ana lytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a decision support model to aid managers i n selecting new product ideas to pursue. The need for flexible models that are highly customized to each firm's challenges (such as AHP) to support th e Screening decision and to generate knowledge that will be used as input f or a firm's expert support system is emphasized. The authors then present a n in-depth example of an actual application of AHP in new product screening and discuss the usefulness of this process in gathering and processing kno wledge for making new product screening decisions. Finally, the authors exp lain how a customized AHP process can be incorporated into a sophisticated information system or used as standalone support. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.