1.8 Research and development
If the product or process is one new to the organization, the results from research and development (R&D) may be an important input to the decision process. Research efforts may provide the origin or improvement of the basic idea, and development work may supply working models or a pilot plant, depending upon the nature of the undertaking.
Placing (R&D) in a late stage of decision making, as was done in Fig 1-1, suggests that an idea originates somewhere else in the organization or in field and eventually is placed at the doorstep of R&D for transformation into a workable idea. The possibility of the idea’s originating in the research group should also be exploited and is indicated by the dashed line in Fig. 1-1. Research people often learn of new ideas in other fields which might be applied to their own activity.