Idea-to-Market(I2M)
From the first idea to a market-ready product: how the idea-to-market process runs, how it is measured and where development projects lose time at gates, changes and releases.
Also known as: I2M · Idea to Market · Concept-to-Market · Concept-to-Launch · Design-to-Release · New product development (NPD)
What is Idea-to-Market?
Idea-to-market (I2M) is the end-to-end process from capturing a product idea to launching the finished product on the market. It covers idea evaluation and stage gates, concept and business case, design and engineering including engineering changes, validation, testing and certification, industrialisation and the launch itself. Because engineering, quality, procurement, production and sales work on one product for months or years, I2M determines how quickly and at what effort new products reach the market.
Starts with
A product idea is captured.
Ends with
The product is released, industrialised and launched on the market.
Typical phases
- 1
Idea capture & evaluation
Ideas from the market, customer feedback, research or employees are collected, evaluated and selected for further work at the first gate.
- Idea captured
- Idea evaluated
- Gate 1 decided
- 2
Concept & business case
Requirements, solution concept, costs and market potential are worked out; the next gate decides on the development project.
- Requirements defined
- Concept created
- Business case assessed
- Project approved
- 3
Development & engineering
Parts, assemblies and bills of materials take shape in PLM and CAD. Engineering changes follow their own request and approval path.
- Design started
- Bill of materials created
- Change request raised
- Change approved
- Design released
- 4
Validation & certification
Prototypes and samples are tested, and findings flow back into engineering as changes until tests and approvals are passed.
- Prototype built
- Test performed
- Finding recorded
- Certification granted
- 5
Industrialisation & market launch
Tooling, suppliers and manufacturing processes are prepared, the release for series production is granted and the product is launched to sales and the market.
- Supplier approved
- Pilot series produced
- Series release
- Market launch
Business objects and systems
These are the objects the process leaves in the source systems – with timestamps, owners and relationships to each other.
- Idea
- Captured proposal with source, evaluation and gate decision.
- Development project
- Project with phases, gates, budget and owners – the frame for all other objects.
- Requirement
- Functional, regulatory or customer-specific specification the product is tested against.
- Part & bill of materials
- Design status in PLM with version, maturity and release status.
- Engineering change request
- Technical change to a part, drawing or bill of materials, with justification, assessment and approval.
- Test & finding
- Test on a prototype or sample with its result and the actions that follow.
Typical source systems
- PLM systems (e.g. Siemens Teamcenter, PTC Windchill, Dassault ENOVIA)
- CAD tools
- Idea and innovation management, project portfolio management
- Requirements and test management
- ERP for material master, suppliers and series release
KPIs that can be measured
- Time to market
- Time from project approval to market launch.
- Cycle time per gate
- How long a project takes between two gates and how long it waits for the gate decision.
- Changes after design release
- Engineering changes that reopen a design that has already been released.
- Change request cycle time
- Time from change request to implemented approval.
- Test repetitions
- How often tests have to be run again after a finding.
- Milestone adherence
- Share of gates and releases reached on the planned date.
Typical problems
Gates that exist only on paper
Projects move into the next phase before the gate is decided, or gate criteria are met after the fact. The stage-gate process then documents instead of steering.
Late engineering changes
Changes after design release or during industrialisation trigger rework in engineering, testing, procurement and tooling – the later they come, the more objects are affected.
Waiting times between functions
Engineering waits for test results, testing waits for samples, procurement waits for released bills of materials. The project plan shows dates, but not where the hand-overs get stuck.
Loops between testing and engineering
Repeated findings on the same parts point to unclear requirements or lessons from earlier projects that were not carried over.
How Noreja analyses Idea-to-Market
A development project is not a single case with a sequence of steps. It involves hundreds of parts with their own versions, change requests that affect several bills of materials, tests on different prototypes and suppliers for individual components. A flat event log would have to declare one of these objects the case and lose the rest. Noreja represents them together in the event knowledge graph, so a late change stays visible down to every affected test and purchase order.
Stage-gate logic and release rules are modelled as the expected order with domain knowledge from engineering and quality: no development start before the gate, no series release before certification has been passed. This shows where projects deviate from the intended flow and which deviation later triggers rework.
Questions Noreja answers
- Which gates delay time to market the most?
- Where does development work start before the required gate decision?
- Which parts are changed most often after design release?
- How long do change requests wait for assessment and approval?
- Which tests have to be repeated regularly, and why?
- Which hand-overs between engineering, procurement and production cause the longest waiting times?
Matching agents from the Minerva Agent Library
Frequently asked questions about Idea-to-Market
What is the idea-to-market process?
Idea-to-market (I2M) is the end-to-end process from product idea to market launch. It covers idea evaluation and stage gates, concept and business case, development and engineering changes, validation and certification, and industrialisation and launch.
What is the difference between idea-to-market and plan-to-produce?
Idea-to-market ends where series production planning begins: with a released product, bill of materials and manufacturing process. Plan-to-produce takes over from there and describes the ongoing planning and manufacturing of the product. Engineering changes to series products connect the two processes.
Which KPIs matter in idea-to-market?
Typical KPIs are time to market, cycle time per gate, changes after design release, change request cycle time, test repetitions and milestone adherence.
Can process mining be used in product development?
Yes. Gate decisions, change requests, releases of parts and bills of materials and test results leave timestamps and owners in PLM, project and test management. Process mining shows the actual course of a project, waiting times between functions and loops caused by late changes.
Demo cases with a worked-through analysis
End-to-end processes we have played through with findings, causes and measures – some of them touching Idea-to-Market.
- Manufacturing in special machine buildingPlan-to-ProduceFrom production order to delivered machine: how process intelligence compares planned and actual dates per work center, finds waiting times between work centers and makes the capital tied up along the way visible.
- Procurement in special machine buildingPurchase-to-PayFrom internal requirement to payment: how causal process mining makes approval bypasses, rework, capacity dependencies and supplier performance in purchase-to-pay visible and explainable.
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