Change, adaptability and development are the key issues defining marketing today. There is a dire need to develop products that customers will want in the future. Today, the level of synergism in the new product and the attractiveness of the market define the success or failure of the product in the market. This article deals with the "synergy" required for developing a new product and the role of supply chain management in reducing the time to market the product, thereby enabling its success.

The new product development process begins with the identification of the opportunity in the market for the product and continues until the launch of the product. In between of the process, there are number of other processes and activities which define the requirements, development and testing concepts, preparing schedules, sourcing of raw materials, planning the supply chain activities, etc. New Product Development (NPD) is defined as the process of conceiving and creating a new product and the outcomes of that process (Nakata & Sivakumar, 1996; Sheremata, 1998). According to Hall (1991), companies approach new products in different ways.

Traditionally, functions such as marketing, R&D, manufacturing, and distribution worked independent of each other, while developing a new product. NPD was considered a relay race, with each function passing on the work as the product gets developed (Cooper, 1990). Normally, organizations use a "Sequential Process" for new product development, wherein each activity proceeds from one functional group to another in the development process. There are number of stages where decisions are made as to whether to proceed to the next stage, or send the project back to the drawing board.

Marketing Mastermind Magazine, Product Development, Supply Chain Management, Research and Development, R&D, Manufacturing Industries, Decision-Making Process, Quality Function Deployment, QFD, Computer-Aided Design, CAD, Computer-Aided Manufacturing, CAM, Project Management.